Resisting Temptation in a Crisis: How to Make Sure Ethics and Compliance Don't Get Diluted Under Financial Strain | New York City Bar Association

No matter the industry, businesses during the coronavirus crisis are facing unprecedented economic headwinds. The implications for compliance efforts, If not adequately managed, could be serious. During the COVID-19 crisis, the kinds of events that companies have taken for granted in recent years—such as trainings or leadership conferences—have either ground to a halt or slowed to a trickle. And even if they do happen, today’s circumstances necessarily make it harder to truly connect with employees and agents, in every sense of the word. All of this is comes at a time when the business imperative to generate revenue is at its highest, and cost-cutting will inevitably mean that compliance departments will inevitably be told that they have to make do with less.

How should businesses and compliance departments handle these problems? What ways are there to do more with less, and how much can technology help? Are there new areas of special focus, for example, anti-fraud efforts, which will garner the most attention? And is right now perhaps a rare opportunity for corporate leadership to reinforce in the strongest possible way its messaging about ethics and compliance? The panel of compliance specialists, including representatives from inside companies and from government, discussed these crucial issues of the COVID-19 era.