We provide the following compliance consultancy services to public companies, including financial institutions and banks. Our services include consultation and analysis of compliance issues.
Regulatory compliance
Compliance, internal audit and corporate governance that meets Basel requirements;
International standards on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation (FATF Recommendations February 2012);
The banks risk management and internal control systems (AFN Instruction No 359).
On 23rd of December 2013 the Republic of Kazakhstan has joined The Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and it is expected that Kazakhstan will sign The Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement of Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (CRS).
In 2010 the U.S. adopted Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in order to reduce tax abuse by U.S. taxpayers with bank accounts outside the United States. The law has extraterritorial effect and applies to financial institutions in Kazakhstan.
Bribery Act 2010
Bribery Act was passed by the Parliament of the U.K. in 2010 and aims to combat bribery. The Act applies to British companies and companies engaged in business in the UK. The law is aimed at preventing corrupt practices of companies outside the UK.
Patriot Act 2001
The Act applies, in particular, to Kazakh banks that have correspondent accounts with the U.S. banks. One of the requirements is the nomination process agent in the United States.
FCPA
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was passed by Congress in 1977. The Act prohibits the giving, offering bribes and the promise of U.S. issuers (companies, U.S. and foreign companies, the securities of which are available on the U.S. stock exchanges) to any foreign government official.
Compliance to covenants
In many documents related to financing (loan agreement, trust agreement, agreements and memoranda of the bond issue) contains certain requirements for the debtor – covenants, the failure of which leads to various penalties, including early repayment of debt or redemption.
Compliance monitoring
Despite successful implementation of compliance systems many Kazakh companies face the problem of maintenance and continuous improvement. Implemented documents and instruments initially have declarative ground beyond them and, as proves the practice, rarely reconsidered or tested on effectiveness. Compliance systems, as any other systems within a company, have to be continuously revised and improved in order to tackle always changing legislation and other objective challenges that impact the compliance management.
Contract compliance
During implementation of several projects our experts have noticed that quite often minor contractual obligations are not being complied with because of negligence or because of absence of proper management. Breach of any contractual obligations at least raises vigilance by counterparties.