Compfie shares insights to using automated compliances to mitigate bribery, corruption, corporate risks

Aparajitha Corporate Services Ltd., India’s leading company for compliance in association with 3W, a leading Transformational Consulting and Training Company in Sri Lanka, organised its second Global Compliance Webinar recently.  

Aparajitha Corporate Services introduced its Global E-Governance and Compliance Platform – ‘Compfie’ in Sri Lanka in association with 3W Consulting headquartered in Colombo, last year. This move to position ‘Compfie’ in Sri Lanka’s compliance market marked a major development for the strategic country partnership between Aparajitha and 3W.

The virtual webinar session was about understanding compliance management and the role technology and digitisation can play in transforming financial compliance for organisations.

Speaking on the importance of the session, Aparajitha Corporate Services Managing Director Nagaraj Krishnan said: “With increased regulatory changes and the ‘new normal’ brought forth by COVID-19, One major trend in corporate compliance to watch out for in 2022 will be the substantial increase in digital transformation in terms of automation and simplification of compliance-related processes. Any e-compliance architecture needs to be designed to provide complete visibility and a bird’s eye view of the compliance status across the country, state, and unit levels.” 

“It is equally important for experts to provide round-the-clock support in updating country-wise Industry-specific laws and auto-configuring the software with an appropriate domain covering laws under Labour, Fiscal, Corporate, Commercial, EHS, and industry-specific catering to large global organisations, medium and small firms,” he added.

3W Consulting Managing Director Stefan Moraes said: “Sri Lankan companies today have rapidly prioritised Compliance, as Boards have stepped up their commitment to Corporate Governance driven by SEC, market and regulatory dynamics. 

“Since the outbreak of the pandemic, corporates have faced the challenge of facilitating ‘Work from Anywhere’ and operating through hybrid models has further compounded the risk of non-compliance. Companies are required to comply with regulatory standards, around the value chain in their operating model covering fiscal, HR, and environment functions.” 

“A Board can keep track of the Compliances spread across the different Business Functions and different job responsibilities through our Compliance solution ‘Compfie’; a fully integrated online Compliance Management tool designed to global standards with a dynamic country, industry, and corporate legal knowledge management system embedded. This Legal KMS in Compfie also caters to specific Sectors, Industry Compliance Standards, and requirements,” he added.

Some of the major aspects discussed in the session included; how digitisation can help businesses in:

• Mitigating Operational Challenges in Tracking Compliances for Multiple Location/Multiple Regulatory Compliances – Department of Registrar of Companies (DRC), Inland Revenue Department (IRD), Central bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Insurance Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (IRCSL) and Sri Lanka Customs (SLC)
• Complying with all applicable laws and management responsibility as per Sri Lanka Auditing Standards (SLAS 250)
• Preventing and detecting Money Laundering and Financing Risks while dealing with customers through Financial Transaction Reporting Act (FTRA), Designated Non-Finance Business (DNFB), and Customer Due Diligence (CDD) Regulations
• Keeping an organisation up-to-date with proactive alerts on the changes in the applicable laws and regulations together with relevant guidelines, determinations, directions, notices, and circulars by regulators (CBSL, IRD, DRC, IRCSL, FIU, SEC, etc.)
• Avoiding the risk of missing any important Financial Compliances – Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Compliance Obligations, Customer Due Diligence, and United Nations Sanctions, Outsourcing Regulations, Basel III and Sri Lankan Financial Reporting Standards (SLFRS)