Swiss Re success story

The work of a Compliance Officer is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic and complex positions to be found in today’s Corporate world.

It is a position in which you can, and must, constantly improve and shift the level of your knowledge so that you are always one step ahead of any undesired behaviour.

Although each company, organisation or institution faces different types and different exposure to risks, the common denominators of their Compliance programmes are Money Laundering, International Trade and Economic Sanctions, Bribery and Corruption, and Conflict of Interest. For us at Swiss Re, however, the function of the Compliance department, as well as the mandate of the Compliance Officer itself, is not strictly limited to the identification and assessment of the above mentioned risks and their mitigation. In addition to protecting Swiss Re from any possible misuse, loss of reputation or illegal activity, we consider it equally important to build a culture of Compliance in society as a whole. The main reason is our belief that without a properly set up and implemented Compliance culture, the company is only a pure executor of its vision, without any added value.

Swiss Re is well aware of the importance of educating and raising awareness of today’s critical issues, one of which is Integrity. Through our membership in the Slovak Compliance Circle, we wanted to highlight the importance of ethical behaviour, as well as importance of promoting such behaviour, not only in business itself, but also among the generation of young people who will follow us in the future.

Despite the global pandemic and the constraints that resulted from it, in 2020 we prepared several external initiatives for students and graduates to not only raise awareness of the Compliance department, the Compliance Officer position, but also that Integrity is seen at Swiss Re as one of the five key values ​​of our organisation.

In March we looked for Compliance “superheroes” among students when we invited them to dust off their Compliance super powers and prepare an Escape Room for one of five selected Compliance Risks – Bribery and Corruption, Money Laundering, Conflict of Interests, Data Protection or Fraud. As part of this external activity, we financially awarded the three best students who prepared assignments for their own Compliance Escape Room.

We continued with the Escape Room concept in November, when we again invited students to a similar activity, but this time on a specific Compliance Risk – Bribery and Corruption. The activity took place as part of the Evening with Swiss Re event, where we delivered a webinar on “Compliance – a mysterious department”. In the webinar, we introduced the key functions of the Compliance department, the mandate of a Compliance Officer, Compliance Risks in general and also looked at three specific cases from the past where private companies or financial institutions due to their insufficient Compliance programme had to deal with massive financial losses as well as loss of reputation. At the end of the webinar we announced the winner of the Compliance Challenge, who won a voucher to spent on something interesting.

We do not stop building Compliance culture among young people even in 2021. We are planning several other initiatives, including cooperation with the Slovak Compliance Circle in the preparation of lectures on Compliance topics for students in Slovakia. Stay tuned!

Lucia Rosiarová

Legal & Compliance
Swiss Re Management AG