TRACE Upends Due Diligence with TRACE Certification

ANNAPOLIS, Md., Feb. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- TRACE, the global leader in anti-bribery standard setting and shared-cost compliance solutions, today announced a ground-breaking approach to due diligence that revolutionizes third-party screening and eliminates costs for multi-national corporations. Under this new model, responsibility for vetting anti-bribery concerns moves to intermediaries who will – once approved – maintain their own compliance information.

TRACE Certification allows commercial intermediaries and third-party service providers to own their due diligence compliance reports and share them with business partners, completing the process just once per year instead of repeatedly. The "portable" reports are affordably priced to appeal to intermediaries as an integrated cost of doing business. Once intermediaries are vetted, trained and certified, they gain the valuable business advantage of being recognized in the compliance community as having gone through the gold standard in due diligence.  

Historically, major national and multi-national corporations bore the expense in time and dollars of obtaining due diligence reports on every single business partner around the globe with whom they worked — a model that is no longer sustainable as both expectations and expenses rise. TRACE's new portable due diligence flips that equation, with the intermediaries and third-parties now paying for the annually-updated reports themselves and having the freedom to share those reports with an unlimited number of global partners.

"Portable reporting represents an evolution in due diligence," said Alexandra Wrage, president and founder of TRACE who is widely credited with creating the shared cost compliance model a decade ago. "This innovative approach to information sharing maintains the transparency needed in selecting business partners while reducing repetitive spending on reports by companies and intermediaries alike."

For intermediaries and global third-party business partners, TRACE's pre-vetted portable reports will give them the ability to streamline reporting and respond to due diligence requests with a new immediacy. For global companies, the expense and lag time associated with the vetting process will be eliminated, allowing projects to move forward with confidence and without delay.

With the steady pace of enforcement under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and increased focus on supply chain compliance and anti-bribery due diligence, the need for unbiased, trustworthy reporting on global business partners has never been greater.  TRACE's due diligence options provide companies small and large with an array of reliable, globally recognized solutions.

TRACE Certification, which includes a mandatory online training course, annual review of due diligence compliance and completion of a substantial review process, also complements TRAC, TRACE's universal baseline due diligence identification program launched in 2012 that was an instant success among global companies and their business partners.

TRAC (TRACE Registered Access Code) captures, assesses and shares baseline due diligence information and issues universal ID numbers to approved applicants.  A TRAC 12 digit code quickly and cost‐effectively establishes a TRAC holder's identity, address, and information, and continuously screens the TRAC holder's name against international watch lists. TRACE Certification provides a more detailed level of due diligence and training.  Together TRACE Certification and TRAC provide companies with a comprehensive, risk-based anti-bribery compliance solution.

"When considering business partners, companies want robust review, analysis and certification by a respected third party.  These two TRACE tools provide companies with the confidence they are looking for in selecting business partners," added Wrage.

To learn more, please contact [email protected].

About TRACE

TRACE International develops cost-effective anti-bribery compliance and due diligence solutions for multi-national companies and their commercial intermediaries, including sales agents and representatives, consultants, distributors, suppliers and others. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, TRACE is committed to pragmatic alternatives to increasingly time-consuming and expensive corporate compliance. 

SOURCE TRACE