Culture of Compliance

Blue Ribbon for Kelly, despite being accidentally misjudged for speaking out of time. The Timer (being a first timer - pun intended haha...) thought that the speech was to be delivered within 6 minutes instead of 7, and buzz Kelly off while she as delivering her final punchline at 6:30 minutes. Anyway, all's well ends well.. :) And we all learnt an important thing, which is to keep our speeches short and simple at all times. :) =================================================

Does anyone know this man? He is Flavio Briatore. Who is Flavio Briatore? This is the face of a Cheater!

Ladies and Gentleman, Fellow toastmasters and friends,

Why am I talking about this cheater? Who is he? What has he cheated me of? Not of my money, as he has 100 times more money than I do. And I am not jealous of his wife. This man is closely link to all of us. And I feel I need to make all of you aware of this man and what he has done to us. Flavio Briatore was the Managing Director of the Renault Formula One team. And this man has now been suspended for life from F1 activities!

Up until last week, ING was sponsoring the Renault F1 team. And luckily, ING was very wise to denounce the sponsorship immediately upon knowing this incident, otherwise ING will be labelled as a CHEATER as well. Imagine the impact if our customers were to associate us as cheaters if we continue to associate and endorse a cheating team.

You can see how this one man, Flavio Briatore has brought shame to the entire Renault F1 team by masterminding a race-fixing scandal and indirectly bringing shame to all of us in ING as well. For those who are unaware, let me tell you of this scandal. Everyone loves to hear a good scandal, don’t we?

Who watched F1 last Sunday? Where was it held? Yes, Singapore. Incidentally, last September in Singapore, Flavio Briatore ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash his car so that teammate Fernando Alonso could win the 2008 Grand Prix title. His action not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of the spectators and drivers!

Sports is considered to be an avenue for clean competition, thus you see many big companies endorsing sports event and promoting sportsmanship. And F1 is supposed to be the Big Boys Sports -the luxurious lifestyle where fame and fortune comes hand in hand with face. Thus this scandal is a big blow to the world sports body and all the companies involved.

In our corporate world, the people make the difference. Many do not realise the importance of compliance or corporate governance and how one mistake from one person can change the entire image of the company. Corporate governance is not only about having rules and regulations and policies. We know it's not enough to have policies. It's not enough to have procedures. It's not enough to have good intentions. All of these can help. But to be successful, compliance must be an embedded part of our firm's culture.

With the major impact shown by various major companies such as Enron, Arthur Andersen and Barings bank, we've noticed that the root cause is mainly their poor cultures of compliance. In many cases it seems clear that the culture of immediate, short-term profit overwhelmed the culture of compliance. Scandal teaches us that the culture of compliance must be taken seriously. As such, ING and all of us must learn from all these scandals and not make the same mistakes. I strongly believe that having a culture of compliance must be part of every firm's core business model.

A wise person once said that the test of a truly moral person, is whether he does the right thing when no one is looking. Certainly, the test for all firms is whether they maintain and each day, reinforce, a culture of compliance — which includes a culture of doing not only what is within the strict parameters of the law, but also what is right — whether or not a regulator or anyone else is looking. It is critical that firms establish a strong culture of compliance that guides and reinforces employees as they make decisions and choices each day.

In conclusion, having a healthy compliance culture is very important to our business. As we witness all the scandals and their impact, we will benefit, because it will help us sharpen the focus of our oversight in the compliance area. But more importantly, it will also enhance the protection we deliver to investors, which is after all, the ultimate goal of every culture of compliance.

So I leave you all with a simple question. If your boss was Flavio Briatore, and you were in Nelson Piquet Jr’s shoes, would you have done what your boss have asked you to do? Remember you can make a difference. You can make the change and be part of the culture of compliance.