The results, released yesterday, revealed that 71 per cent of compliance professionals surveyed stopped or delayed working with a business partner due to concerns about breaking anti corruption regulations, representing an increase of 20 per cent from four years ago.

Emerging markets

More than half said they had stopped or delayed a push into emerging markets for the same reason.
Rupert de Ruig, managing director of risk & compliance at Dow Jones & Company, said: ‘This year we've found an unprecedented awareness of anti-corruption regulation and this is reflected in the survey results, with business practices becoming cleaner, more accountable and more process-driven.’

Money saving

Almost half of the professionals, representing 350 companies worldwide, claimed to have lost business to ‘unethical competitors’ in the last month. However, the trend is slightly downwards.
Almost three quarters of respondents said that regulations had brought greater fairness, while more than half said that business-partner relationships had improved and money had been saved.