The toxicity of sycophants: Internal Audit as a gatekeeper
Over the weekend, I found this one-year-old article called « The Danger of Surrounding Yourself with Sycophants in Business – Having business (and personal) relationships with sycophants can be dangerous and could seriously harm your business » by Stephanie Dillon, published by Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture-council/articles/danger-of-surrounding-yourself-with-sycophants-in-business-1234683509/ In my career, either as CAE or CCO, but also when I […]
ECB on non-financial risks: severe conclusions from the annual analysis on outsourcing
The European Central bank (ECB) issued an interesting article on February 21st, 2024. Since 2022, the ECB collects the outsourcing registers of all significant institutions (SIs) within the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) on an annual basis. For the 2023 data collection, the ECB had 109 SIs in scope, and focused on the increasing reliance of […]
An Inspiring idea from Michael Diekmann, former Allianz Group CEO
Throughout my career, I’ve met, exchanged and worked with some remarkable leaders, whether colleagues from EY or Allianz, or peers from other organizations. I’ve always learned from these interactions. In this series, I’ll share an idea, lesson or experience I’ve learned and translated into my own work. Michael Diekmann, former CEO of the Allianz Group: […]
AML-CFT: 4 reasons to be optimistic about a stronger impact
On February 15th, 2024, the GIS – Geopolitical Intelligence Services AG – published an article by Elisabeth Krecke with a rather provocative title: “Why anti-money laundering policies are failing – In the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, current methods are costly, ineffective, and excessively regulatory. There is hope: new tools are on the […]
Evaluation of a Corporate Compliance Program – the DOJ approach
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) describes in a Justice Manual the factors prosecutors should consider in conducting an investigation of a corporation – the so-called « Filip factors« . Two of these factors relate to Corporate Compliance Programs (CCPs): · “The adequacy and effectiveness of the CCP at the time of the offence, as well as […]
An Inspiring idea from Paul Boyle and James Turner, former Aviva and Prudential Plc CAEs
All along my career, I have met, exchanged, or worked with remarkable leaders, either colleagues in EY or Allianz, or peers from other organizations. I always learned from all these interactions. In this series I will share one idea, lesson or experience I learned and that I translated into my own work. Paul Boyle (former […]
Do you know? The growing impact of severe storms
When discussing natural catastrophes (Nat Cat for insurers, as opposed to “Man Made” losses), what comes to mind for most of us are earthquakes and then floods, wildfires, and thunderstorms. 2023 is a record-breaking year for Nat Cat. According to Swiss re, the economic losses from Nat Cat in 2023 are estimated to be USD260bn, […]
Handling Fit & Proper interviews
In a recent post, Adam Balfour commented on the “two Ethics and Compliance questions that should be asked in every job interview for leaders and managers”. Great topic for which I have some experience. With 150 000+ employees worldwide, the pool of top executives in Allianz counts about 250 individuals: CEOs of local companies, leaders […]
The value chain of the compliance activity: organizing the function
I took over the Group Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) role of the Allianz Group in spring 2020, with the mandate to transform and to define a reorientation of the compliance function across the Group. I quickly defined 3 objectives for a Compliance Reorientation (CoRe): · Culture: contribute to a strong Compliance culture across the Group, […]
The Internal Audit Chief Operating Officer for large teams
A CAE, with a small or a large team, spends a significant time in administrative tasks. They are important: from preparing for the Audit Committee to managing human resources and budget, from preparing the annual plan to participating to internal or external events… Sometimes these tasks are distributed amidst team members, or shared with an […]