Global Knowledge®

Amber Road, a leading provider of global trade management solutions, announced yesterday that Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH), one of the world’s largest manufacturers of discrete semiconductors and passive electronic components, reduced corporate risk and improved compliance with trade regulations using Amber Road’s Restricted Party Screening (RPS) On-Demand solution.

Integrated into three separate instances of SAP, the RPS On-Demand solution enables Vishay to screen tens of thousands of its customers and vendors across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, against over 200 restricted party lists from government institutions worldwide.

Click here to read the entire press release.

According to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), ING Bank N.V. has agreed to forfeit $619 million to the Justice Department and the New York County District Attorney’s Office for illegally moving billions of dollars through the US financial system on behalf of Cuban and Iranian sanctioned entities. ING Bank is held responsible for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), as well as violating New York state laws by illegally moving over $2 billion dollars through the US financial systems via more than 20,000 transactions between the early 1990s and 2007. This fine is the largest ever against a bank in connection with an investigation into US sanctions violations.

ING Bank executed this scheme through tactics including:

• eliminating payment data that would have revealed the involvement of sanctioned countries and entities
• advising sanctioned clients on how to conceal their involvement in U.S. dollar transactions
• threatening to punish certain employees if they failed to take specified steps to remove references to sanctioned entities in payment messages

Most upsetting is that these illegal activities occurred with the knowledge and encouragement of members of both the legal and compliance departments.

The bank has also entered a parallel settlement agreement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). As part of the agreement, ING will be required to conduct a full review of its policies and procedures to ensure that its compliance program is functioning effectively.

To read the entire Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) press release, click here.

For information on Amber Road’s Restricted Party Screening solution, which enables companies to automate the screening process, click here.

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A new white paper released today by Amber Road found that mid-market companies are increasingly at risk for violating U.S. export regulations. This is especially concerning because U.S. export volumes are on the rise. According to a recent U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis report, U.S. exports grew 7.7% from January 2011 to January 2012.

Amber Road surveyed 150 mid-market companies about their export compliance processes. They found that 23% do not screen for restricted parties prior to engaging with trading partners and customers, and only 41% have a comprehensive export compliance program in place. Not surprisingly, survey respondents pointed to a lack of executive sponsorship as a primary reason for their companies’ trade compliance deficiencies.

To learn more, read the full press release, or download a copy of the white paper.

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Join Amber Road on Wednesday, February 22^nd at 2:00pm EST, for a complimentary webinar showcasing TradeWizards.com, a new cloud-based portal that enables companies to classify products, calculate duties and taxes, and screen for restricted parties…for FREE!

During the “TradeWizards.com: Answers to Your Tough Trade Questions” webinar, industry experts will review the challenges companies are facing when it comes to importing and exporting, and show you how TradeWizards.com can help combat those challenges.

Speakers will include:
Scott Byrnes, Vice President of Marketing, Amber Road
Steve Keighley, Solutions Consultant, Amber Road

Join us to learn how TradeWizards.com can help you tackle your compliance challenges.  Register today!
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Amber Road, a leading provider of Global Trade Management solutions, announces the launch of its latest trade compliance product, TradeWizards.com, a free cloud based portal for global trade.  TradeWizards.com is a suite of nine different research tools that helps organizations quickly answer questions related to the cost and compliance risks associated with importing and exporting goods.

TradeWizards.com will enable users to instantly perform numerous global trade activities including: restricted party screening, product classification, and landed cost calculations..  What used to require hours of manual interpretation of trade rules is now an automated process achieved instantly via TradeWizards.com.

Find out how you can streamline the trade compliance process at your company. Watch the TradeWizards.com tutorial.

To read the full press release, please click here.

Export Compliance Webinar Series, Part One: Restricted Party Screening

Join Customs & Trade Solutions, Inc. and Management Dynamics for a complimentary three-part Export Compliance Webinar Series, which will address the three key steps of any Export Compliance Program (ECP): Restricted Party Screening, Product Classification, and Shipment Screening and Documentation.
 
The first webinar will be held tomorrow, September 20^th at 2:00pm EDT, and will review in detail the most common first step of any export compliance program, Restricted Party Screening (RPS).
 
Global trade compliance experts will show you how to automate Restricted Party Screening to reduce your compliance risk, as well as provide a discussion on industry challenges and best practices for building an Export Compliance Program (ECP), including:

• Tips for establishing a cost-effective compliance program in a down economy
• Understanding of the technology available to manage RPS today
• How you can implement screening software across your organization
• Screening best practices of today’s top global exporters

Speakers will include:
Suzanne Richer, President, Customs & Trade Solutions, Inc.
Sanjeev Williams, Product Manager, Management Dynamics
 
Register for the webinar today!
 
Mark your calendars for the next two webinars in this series!
Product Classification: Friday, October 21
Shipment Screening & Documentation: Friday, November 18
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Part One: Restricted Party Screening

Join Customs & Trade Solutions, Inc. and Management Dynamics for a complimentary three-part Export Compliance Webinar Series, which will address the three key steps of any Export Compliance Program (ECP): Restricted Party Screening, Product Classification, and Shipment Screening and Documentation.
 
The first webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 20^th at 2:00pm EDT and will review in detail the most common first step of any export compliance program, Restricted Party Screening (RPS).
 
Global trade compliance experts will show you how to automate Restricted Party Screening to reduce your compliance risk, as well as provide a discussion on industry challenges and best practices for building an Export Compliance Program (ECP), including:

• Tips for establishing a cost-effective compliance program in a down economy
• Understanding of the technology available to manage RPS today
• How you can implement screening software across your organization
• Screening best practices of today’s top global exporters

Speakers will include:
Suzanne Richer, President, Customs & Trade Solutions, Inc.
Sanjeev Williams, Product Manager, Management Dynamics
 
Register for the webinar today!
 
Mark your calendars for the next two webinars in this series!
Product Classification: Friday, October 21
Shipment Screening & Documentation: Friday, November 18
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Join the Association of Corporate Counsel and Management Dynamics for a complimentary webinar, Using Technology to Enhance Your Regulatory Compliance Program, on Wednesday, September 21 at 2:00pm EDT.
 
Global trade compliance experts will discuss key strategies to consider when creating or enhancing a compliance program, including:

• Understanding international trade sanctions, including Specially Designated Nationals
• Best practices for implementing an Export Compliance Program (ECP), including complying with new I-29 deemed export certification requirements
• The importance of screening against federal government debarred lists, including Medicare/Medicaid, FDA, FAR, etc., as well as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and FCPA compliance

Speakers will include:

• Robert Roach, Chief Compliance Officer, New York University
• Anthony Hardenburgh, VP Global Trade Content, Management Dynamics

This is a must attend event for in-house counsel and regulatory compliance professionals.  Register for the webinar today!
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TALIS Group, a world-leading provider of water valves and services for the whole water cycle, has gone live with the Management Dynamics’ Export On-Demand solution for Restricted Party Screening (RPS). Deploying Export On-Demand is a foundation technology for TALIS’s goal of centralizing and automating its global export compliance processes.

Over the past year, the company’s European group has acquired multiple companies that now operate as TALIS Group subsidiaries, prompting TALIS to consolidate management of its global trade compliance capabilities. Utilizing a multi-tenant and multi-organization architecture, team-based workflow and on-demand in the cloud, all subsidiaries and offices within TALIS Group can easily manage their own customer shipments.

Read the full article.
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Export Compliance: Best Practices in High Volume Screening

During our recent webinar with American Shipper, “Export Compliance: Best Practices in High Volume Screening,” industry experts discussed the latest trends and best practices in export screening.  The attendees asked some excellent questions, but the one-hour time slot did not allow enough time to answer them all.  As promised, we compiled all of the questions asked during the webinar, and their responses.  Here are a few:
 
Q: Verizon screens customers and employees. Does it also screen other parties such as suppliers and banks?
A: That periodic screening is only for Verizon employees and customers. However, in transactional screening we screen all parties associated to that transaction, customer and contracts associated to the customer (there is no exception).
 
Q: Do companies make case by case decisions as to whether or not to do business with denied entities?
A: A company should never do business with a denied party. Our software allows users to research potential hits and make a determination if they are potentially doing business with a denied party. We track users and their decisions to provide complete accountability.
 
Q: What is the assessment of the consolidated US Government screening solution that’s now available online?
A: The consolidated list that’s now posted only includes a portion of the lists that need to be checked and is US centric.  It alone is not sufficient to ensure you or your organization is not doing business with a restricted party.  There are literally dozens of other lists including the United Nations and many others around the world that also need to be considered.
 
Q: What is an exporter’s responsibility if they sell to reputable distributors and don’t know who the end user/customer is?
A: If your organization is the US Principal Party in Interest, then you are ultimately responsible.  The other consideration is what’s your appropriate level of due diligence to ensure you and your distributor are appropriately screening?  How do you know the distributor is screening?  Have you asked?  How far do you need to go to ensure compliance?  The answer to that question depends on the circumstances and if you are aware of any red flags. You can ask questions until you are comfortable with your distributor’s trade compliance program?  Have or can they prove to you they have a comprehensive effort that complies with the letter and spirit of the law?  How much exposure, risk and liability are you willing to take on without knowing the ultimate end-use and end-user of your products or services?  What’s your relationship with your distributors?  Do you trust them?  Again, what proof do you have they are screening?
 
Q: What are some best practices around positive hit escalation where the screening system does not strictly block the transaction?
A: If you have a potential hit, most of our customers will put the transaction on hold and work diligently to clear the party in question.  Our workflow allows users by organization to work the issue and escalate to management as necessary.  We provide a number of additional attributes, source list documentation and even pictures to help resolve the potential hit.
 
Q: Are companies required to screen their Customers or Vendors personnel or is it sufficient to screen the company you are contracting with as long as contract or POs identify the company is responsible for compliance? If so how do you a manage phone calls, etc.
A: In most cases screening the customer or vendor is sufficient.  If the personnel’s information is available, for example your contact at ABC company then it would be considered a best practice to screen that contact as well. When it comes to phone calls and interaction with personnel, it really depends on how sensitive the information you are communicating is.
 
Q: How do you handle Chinese or other language character sets?
A: Other character sets (Arabic, Japanese, etc) are published with a transcribed English phrase so that screening can be performed using both the English and local language character sets.
 
To view all the questions and answers, please click here.