TRACE Announces TRACEselect, a Fully 'Customizable' Due Diligence Tool

ANNAPOLIS, Md., Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, TRACE announced its newest due diligence offering: TRACEselect.  TRACEselect was developed in response to demand from companies requiring a more tailored approach to due diligence on a variety of third-party intermediaries, suppliers, distributors and consultants. TRACEselect enables a company to create due diligence reports that meet its specific compliance needs by choosing from various categories of information, including permitting companies to use TRACE's signature "best practices" compliance questionnaire or hosting the company's own questionnaire on the TRACEselect platform. TRACEselect is TRACE's first customizable due diligence service and joins three existing "standardized" due diligence tools which have benefitted TRACE member companies for nearly a decade.

"TRACE continues to guide in-house legal and compliance professionals through the challenge of meeting third party due diligence requirements," said Rebecca Goldman, Vice President of Commercial Law at Rockwell Automation. "Alexandra and the TRACE team of lawyers continually monitor global regulators, survey companies and develop tools for due diligence that are both practical and cost-effective. As a TRACE member company, we enjoy the type of continuous improvement in our compliance program that we'd like to generate internally – if we only had the time and the expertise," continued Goldman.

Since 2001, TRACE has vetted more than 5,000 commercial intermediaries for more than 150 companies on an industry-first, shared-cost basis, ensuring that companies have a robust, cost-effective and current due diligence product along with real-time access to a database of pre-vetted entities. For years, this single, robust due diligence level – the TRACE Standard – was sufficient for most companies, but changes in the compliance community, enforcement agencies and the risk and cost of prosecution require more varied tools to complete a company's due diligence toolkit.

"TRACE is committed to supporting companies in their efforts to enhance their compliance programs, improve transparency and continue to offer the most effective models to fight corruption," said Alexandra Wrage, President and Founder of TRACE. "Our team is led by US and European-trained anti-bribery lawyers.  We know our companies and we know their intermediaries – we never outsource our due diligence."

In addition to the TRACE Standard, TRACE also offers TRACEcheck, a streamlined due diligence tool designed for lower-risk third party intermediaries or as a pre-vetting tool for higher risk third parties, as well as TRACEreview, an on-site due diligence review conducted by one of several US-based TRACE attorneys with significant experience in anti-bribery compliance and investigations.

According to Susan Ringler, Senior Counsel for International Compliance at ITT Corporation, "TRACE's existing due diligence products, and now TRACEselect, provide companies with robust and cost-effective due diligence tools that can be tailored to assess almost any level of risk that may be presented by third-parties providing services for a multinational company. TRACE brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the many issues that may arise and professionally delivers its services."

TRACE is a non-profit membership association that pools resources to provide practical and cost-effective anti-bribery compliance solutions for multinational companies and their commercial intermediaries. TRACE provides several core services and products, including: due diligence reports on commercial intermediaries; model compliance policies; an online Resource Center with foreign local law summaries, including guidelines on gifts and hospitality; in-person and online anti-bribery training; and research on corporate best practices. For more information, please visit www.TRACEinternational.org.

For more information about TRACE and its various tools and services, including due diligence, please contact [email protected].

SOURCE TRACE