Southeast Asian countries often
have less stringent regulatory environments than more developed nations do.
This can expose foreign firms with local partners to regulatory, legal, or
reputational risks. To address these risks, Access Asia provides compliance
solutions for our clients. Our range of solutions are designed to help
companies avoid any legal or reputational issues while working with local
partners in Southeast Asia. Moreover, ensuring
local partners are conducting business legally and in compliance with each
country’s laws can help avoid costly delays, fines, and limited exposure to
laws such as the United States’ Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the United
Kingdom’s Bribery Act. Our compliance solutions can be implemented at the pre- or post-transaction stage,
as well as part of a yearly strategy.
Our approach
Our compliance solutions include a
series of checks on local partners to ensure they are adhering to regulatory
requirements and have a good reputation within the country they operate in.
Compliance investigations can be different in each jurisdiction yet generally
include:
· Corporate
filings, directors, and ownership records retrieval
· Tax payment
history
· Identifying proxy
owners of local businesses
· Uncovering
political and/or military affiliations
· Civil and
criminal litigation history
· Bankruptcy checks
· Multi-lingual
open source reviews
· Environmental
complaints
· Labor issues
Compliance solutions are designed
to help clients identify any regulatory or potential reputational risks before
a company becomes exposed to adverse issues. Compliance checks combined
with discrete source enquiries based on client-focused questions can provide a
comprehensive understanding of a local firm’s standing with authorities and the
wider community. If any red-flag issues or discrepancies are found, clients are
immediately alerted and further follow-up research can be done. While the
business and regulatory environment in Southeast Asia poses unique challenges,
our risk-based compliance solutions can help limit exposure to risk as well as
demonstrate a corporation’s commitment to maintaining global legal norms.
