Law firm Cornet Vincent Ségurel is launching Compliance Verification System (CVS), a new proprietary tool to assist its clients, and businesses in general, in their approach to compliance.

Compliance has become a major issue for the protection of organisations, whether in terms of managing reputational risk or developing their competitiveness.

This new offering, spearheaded by Compliance Manager Alain Curtet, is aimed at businesses across the spectrum and includes a version tailored specifically to the needs of businesses operating in the insurance sector.

From June 2017, France’s Sapin II Act will require all businesses with over 500 employees and revenue of at least €100 million to introduce compliance and risk prevention programmes. Amongst other things, the Act requires them to take effective measures, in France and abroad, against bribery or corruption. For Cornet Vincent Ségurel, the new legislation is an ideal opportunity to assist businesses in making the necessary ethically-driven changes to their organisation.

Alain Curtet, the driving force behind the Compliance Verification System at Cornet Vincent Ségurel, had this to say: “The growing number of obligations on businesses as regards compliance and the prevention of corruption call for expertise across many different legal fields, whilst allowing for the specific characteristics of each business.  This is the value added our firm can offer, thanks to the wide diversity of legal skills we can call upon and our unique coverage of the territory, which combine to make us a partner of choice. Compliance is now a powerful asset for business development and we are happy to be part of it.”  

This compliance programme will equip businesses with a real tool to boost their economic performance, offering guarantees of smooth operation and good governance, helping to preserve a positive image and to guarantee lasting growth for the organisation. 

The fundamentals of the Compliance Verification System are:

  • An internal audit (including accounting checks) carried out to identify what has already been done;
  • Risk assessment by means of operational mapping, duly documented and periodically updated;
  • A full audit of the situations of customers, suppliers and intermediaries;
  • Introduction of an ethics and compliance programme set out in a reference document such as a code of conduct included in the internal bylaws;
  • Implementation of an in-house alert mechanism and a system for gathering information;
  • An employee training and communication system;
  • Personalised monitoring, shaped in response to the risks identified, and assessment of the measures implemented.

Compliance is a material issue for the insurance sector. Anti money-laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures, handling customer claims or everything relating to the formal institution of the duty to advise are all matters subject to scrutiny by supervisory bodies, in particular the French prudential control and resolution authority (ACPR). The recommendations made and penalties handed down by this regulatory body all offer useful guidelines on achieving compliance. Such guidance is all the more necessary since the Solvency II directive came into force, and in preparation for the forthcoming transposition into French law of the Insurance Distribution Directive. Cornet Vincent Ségurel stands ready to provide pragmatic assistance to all insures and intermediaries, and to brokers in particular.