Publications

Fraud in an economic upturn: Managing the downside of an upswing

A review of how fraud and other integrity risks affect business.

$55billion

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa in 2010

10Minutes on investing in Africa: Revise assumptions, rethink strategies to succeed in the new Africa

25%of global CEOs

surveyed in 2011 by PwC reported incidences of corruption and bribery

Cleaning up corruption: Why anti-corruption compliance is now on the C-Suite radar

Law360: Reducing corruption risk by disrupting moral hazard

All publications

Rapid Growth, Hidden Risks: The how and why of due diligence in Peru

Historically overshadowed by higher profile neighbors to the north and east, Peru remains one of the least well-known markets in the Americas — although it boasts one of the highest growth economies there. Omitted from investment acronyms like BRICS and CIVETS, which made Brazil and Colombia international brand names, Peru’s economy has quietly averaged nearly 6.4% annual growth since 2002 and outpaced the regional average by roughly 2% every year since 2005.

PwC Government Contract Compliance Quarterly Review

Q2 Government fiscal year 2013 – April 29, 2013
Providing critical regulatory updates to Government contracts and compliance professionals

Daubert Challenges to Financial Experts: A yearly study of trends and outcomes (2012)

This study analyzes post-Kumho Tire (2000–2012) challenges to financial expert witnesses under the Daubert standards. We identify observable trends in the frequency and outcome of these challenges based on written opinions in federal and state courts.

Information Risk Management: Aligning Your Records, Privacy, Cybersecurity, and E-Discovery Management Programs

Information is an organization’s most valuable asset. However, the law of diminishing returns applies: the more data an organization retains, the less its value. It becomes increasingly time-consuming to manage the information and more difficult to quickly access when necessary.

10Minutes on the stark realities of cybersecurity

This 10Minutes discusses why cybersecurity is more than an IT challenge—it’s a business imperative.

New technologies, well-funded and determined adversaries, and interconnected business ecosystems have combined to increase your company’s exposure to cyberattacks. Critical digital assets are being targeted and the potential impact to your business has never been greater. In order to sufficiently protect the business, future cash flows, and shareholder value, your approach to cybersecurity must keep pace.

International Arbitration Survey 2013: Corporate choices in International Arbitration

The 2013 Survey, 'Corporate choices in International Arbitration', investigates how corporations use international arbitration, with a particular emphasis on companies in three sectors of strategic importance to the world economy – Energy, Construction and Financial Services.

Intrigued by government contracting opportunities? What you should look at before you leap

With contracts totaling more than $5 trillion in the past decade alone, the US government is the world’s largest buyer of goods and services. Selling to the federal government, given its vast spending power, diverse procurement needs, and consistent year-to-year demand, can offer significant revenue and growth opportunities across the industry spectrum. While businesses often enter into such contracts enticed by the additional revenue stream, they frequently overlook associated risks that can adversely affect the entity long after the revenue flows in and the contract is complete.

2012 Securities Litigation Study

Each year, PwC’s Securities Litigation Study evaluates the private securities class action suits filed in the previous calendar year. In completing this, our seventeenth annual evaluation, it became clear that 2012 marked a significant departure: For the first time in the history of our reports, we were faced with a year that lacked any kind of sweeping, game-changing SEC rule or mandate, market driven event, or industry practice gone wrong. Rather, 2012 was a year that implied no clear direction as to where regulators or shareholders may focus in the future.

Threat Finance: More Licit and More Local Than You Think

Recent cases bring to light the reality that terror financing can come from surprising sources, including highly developed countries; and it can involve legitimate businesses and the traditional financial and banking system. Firms can write off fines and financial losses. But reputational damage is likely to endure. Allegations concerning financial ties to terrorism will tend to stick with stakeholders. A solid understanding of their third party business relationships is crucial to a firm’s ability to safeguard its operations and reputation.

This entails more than electronically screening for sanctioned counterparties; and it’s not enough to avoid informal dealings. Companies should undertake a strategic rethink of how they view threat finance risk and to approach it as a compliance priority alongside corruption and fraud detection.

The New FCPA Resource Guide: Enhanced Insight on Books and Records, Internal Controls, and M&A Due Diligence

In November 2012, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published the highly anticipated A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Resource Guide is an impressive, collaborative undertaking that addresses numerous topics never before assembled in one place.

The 120-page Guide is the first time many risk mitigation approaches are commented on collectively by the government. In our view, it also provides more copious insight in two areas that have previously not received enough attention: the Books & Records/Internal Controls Provisions and the procedures for FCPA due diligence in mergers & acquisitions (M&A).

New opportunities, unfamiliar third parties: The importance of due diligence in Mozambique

Mozambique is emerging from its status as one of the world’s poorest countries, boasting one of the highest growth economies in Africa, largely on the strength of its wealth of natural resources. To make the most of this potential, investors should take an analytical look at the realities on the ground. Like other emerging markets, Mozambique presents challenges, as well as opportunities. We'll explore this young market and the importance of due diligence in pursuing growth there.

Cybersecurity and Corporate America

The Obama Administration is taking steps to address/focus on cyber attacks on critical US infrastructure — the cyber identity theft, economic espionage, and sabotage activities that President Obama has called “real threats to our security and our economy.” Quote from the State of the Union speech These measures represent the Administration’s next steps in attempting to organize an in-depth defense of key assets, and the Federal Government is inviting the private sector to help shape and support this effort. Businesses with a proactive approach to cybersecurity may find opportunities in recent measures the Administration has announced. Our brief outlines how companies seize an opportunity to shape their future cybersecurity environment in three critical areas; expanding public-private information sharing, identifiying and prioritizing US critical infrastructure, and building a cybersecurity framework.

Defending commerciality: Considerations for contractors in managing increased government challenges to commercial item justifications

While contractors sell products and services to the US government through a variety of methods and instruments, contracting for commercial products and services streamlines the acquisition process by relying on observable market prices, rather than on an analysis of cost or pricing data; doing so exempts companies from certain compliance, audit, and reporting requirements. However, recent government actions indicate a proposed shift in the oversight of this method, creating new challenges for contractors both pre- and post-contract award.

The Case For a Combined Code of Business Ethics and Conduct

Are corporate codes of conduct and codes of ethics a luxury or a necessity in today’s tough—and perhaps shrinking—global economy? Compliance may be costly and burdensome, but it is crucial to success.

PwC Government Contract Compliance Quarterly Review

Q1 Government fiscal year 2013 – January 15, 2013
Providing critical regulatory updates to Government contracts and compliance professionals

Testing how clean your books really are

Today’s business environment prominently features a near zero-tolerance stand when it comes to bribery and corruption. Plenty of companies have already initiated compliance programs and policies. But far too few are taking equally appropriate steps to confirm their effectiveness and adherence. If you are not actively monitoring and testing, you may not be prepared to compete in today’s increasingly interconnected world.

Rules of Engagement for Confronting Corruption in Emerging Markets

As horizons expand internationally and emerging markets become more attractive investment options, corporations expose themselves to an increasing amount of risk. For stability operations organizations that regularly support government and private sector operations in the most dangerous places around the globe, such exposure is not new and is often unavoidable.

Tightening the Budget Belt: Managing Contracts and Profitability in Light of Government Spending Reductions

As US leaders eye measures to limit spending and decrease the nation’s debt, contractors should be paying close attention. The contracting environment will become more challenging and competitive. Contractors will need to show how they are now more lean, efficient, and focused on accountability.

PwC Government Contract Compliance Quarterly Review

Q4 Government fiscal year 2012 – October 25, 2012
Providing critical regulatory updates to Government contracts and compliance professionals

Another side of Dodd-Frank: Understanding Section 1504

Is your company an SEC registrant involved in the extractive industry? If so, it's imperative that you understand and begin to act on the requirements of Section 1504 of The Dodd-Frank Act. The first reporting deadline is drawing near, so now is the time to assess your data reporting capabilities and internal controls.

2012 Patent Litigation Study

Overview: Last year marked the most dramatic change to the US patent system in nearly six decades, with the passage of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), which converted the patent system from a 'first to invent' to a 'first inventor to file' system. The AIA, signed into law in September 2011, indeed brought significant changes in certain areas. But it did not address the calculation of damages in patent infringement matters, as had been suggested in prior drafts of the bill.

Contract Compliance: The Importance to C-Suite and Management

Strategic partnerships can a yield competitive advantage through innovation, growth, pricing, profitability, speed to market, quality, and global reach. The contractual arrangements that go hand-in-hand with these arrangements are as important and diverse as the strategic motivations that made the partnerships attractive in the first place. This piece explains how contract compliance programs can lead to near-term, sometimes immediate, financial results.

Are you extracting the right value from your contracts and avoiding revenue leakage?

Licensing compliance issues can have significant impact on a company's revenue streams and the overall value derived from these licensing relationships. This piece details how forensic accounting methods and sound internal and external licensing compliance programs can enhance these relationships, boost profitability, and cash flow by confirming compliance with contractual terms and conditions or revealing inadvertent misreporting or intentional underreporting, whether through omission or inaccuracy.

Counterfeit parts: Considerations for contractors in the context of emerging regulations

Overview: Numerous companies have learned the hard way about counterfeit components. But when counterfeit parts find their way into the world of defense contractors, serious problems can arise, from system malfunctions and failures to diminished efficiency and reduced product life span.

The Southeast Asian tigers roar again: this time for real

Overview: As advanced economies continue to limp out of the global recession, Southeast Asia is a rising star of the global market. The region is led by its five fastest-growing countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Cleaning up corruption

Companies with a global footprint, especially those expanding into new and unfamiliar territories, would be remiss if anti-corruption compliance wasn’t moved closer to the top of their priority list. The elements of a successful anti-corruption strategy start with a corporate-wide framework which should evaluate and address all of the entity's vulnerabilities.

Raising your anti-corruption IQ

In today’s vigorous regulatory environment, compliance programs predating such game-changing measures as the UK Bribery Act are not up to the challenge.

Reducing corruption risk by disrupting moral hazard

Anti-corruption practitioners know, perhaps now more than ever, that third-party relationships represent one of the primary areas of risk for potential violations of the global regulatory framework and generate the greatest number of sanctions. A business agent who pays a bribe to a government official in order to incentivize that official to award a contract or take a favorable action for the benefit of the agent's principal is illustrative of this practice evident around the globe.

View Issue 15

In this issue of PwC's View, companies can learn how to keep pace with change, and design a fiercest competitor as part of the strategy. Other articles look at cyber security and doing business in emerging markets.

Navigating the risks and opportunities in emerging markets

One question increasingly on the mind of a lot of corporate senior executives today is: What are the risk/opportunity tradeoffs of investing in emerging markets? Of course, emerging markets—a term that typically refers to all developing countries—are not a monolith. They are a very heterogeneous group. But the fact is that, as a whole, the rate of growth in emerging markets for the past decade and a half has been twice that of advanced countries, and this trend is unlikely to abate anytime soon.

Export Control Reform: How high are your company’s walls?

Reviewing existing export compliance measures can help companies gauge their readiness for the final reforms, as well as those initiatives that are still underway but may ultimately have a significant impact on business operations of the product life cycle.

Why General Counsel should care about Software Asset Management

General Counsel are often not involved in the initial negotiation of software license agreements, which can be a missed opportunity. Software license agreements can be complex and may include specific technical language which may not be clearly defined nor well understood outside of the IT world.

2011 Securities Litigation Study

The PwC Securities Litigation Study tracks US federal securities class actions filed since the passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA) in 1995. In the 16 years that we’ve conducted this study, we’ve seen that litigation, like many aspects of life, comes full circle. As one crisis or event passes, another emerges, fueling a new pipeline of securities litigation and enforcement cases.

Daubert Challenges to Financial Experts: A yearly study of trends and outcomes

This study analyzes post-Kumho Tire (2000–2011) challenges to financial expert witnesses under the Daubert standards. We identify observable trends in the frequency and outcome of these challenges based on written opinions in federal and state courts.

Meeting Great Expectations in Due Diligence

This paper will share some of the lessons learned about third party due diligence programs in order to help you grow your business. We discuss 20 common points that can help bridge the gap between an ideal compliance setting and the real world.

The Case for Risk-Based Due Diligence: A practical approach to a complex problem

This paper will discuss many of the leading global due diligence drivers and look at the regulatory landscape to help you design a compliance program that complies with worldwide, as well as local, regulations.

Cost Accounting Standards Pension Harmonization Rule, CAS 412 & 413

On December 27, 2011, the Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB) issued the long-awaited final pension harmonization rule titled Cost Accounting Standards: Cost Accounting Standards 412 and 413 - Cost Accounting Standards Pension Harmonization Rule 76 Fed. Reg. 81295 (the final rule).

Government Contracting in a Time of Budget Cutbacks: Competing through effective cost management

This paper will look at how contractors can take strategic cost management and competitive positioning to a new level: ways to make long-term impacts on organizational cost effectiveness and cost structure flexibility to improve competitiveness, take advantage of opportunities and withstand potential contract losses and business base setbacks.

Potential Impacts to the Industry from the GAO Study Regarding DCAA Access to Internal Audit Reports

In its December 8, 2011 report to the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported findings and recommendations resulting from its audit of the use of internal audit reports and work papers by the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA).

Restructuring Opportunities and Risk Considerations for Government Contractors

This paper lays out some of the key considerations and pitfalls for government contractors looking to explore reorganization as one of many possible responses to the changing economic environment.

Global economic crime survey 2011

PwC's biennial Global Economic Crime Survey, in its sixth year with almost 4000 respondents from organizations in 78 countries, is the most comprehensive global survey of economic crime available to businesses.

Marketmap - China: Pearls, pitfalls, and possibilities

China's ascension on the world stage is unquestionably one of the greatest economic stories of our time, and the fascination with it appears endless. But not many know what doing business in today's China really entails, much less implies. Marketmap takes a unique look at the realities.

10Minutes on Changing corruption risks

To help business leaders and corporate directors better understand the corruption risk landscape and more, to prioritize their company's response, we've compiled eight questions to direct to their operational teams.

Integrating technology into your compliance program to improve effectiveness and efficiency

Financial services firms should review their compliance and control systems to make sure they are fully functioning and compliant with new regulatory requirements being imposed by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Broader perspectives; higher performance. State of Compliance: 2011 Study

PwC and Compliance Week teamed up to survey over 100 senior-level compliance executives at leading U.S. companies. The resulting report summarizes the findings of the study and provides selected benchmarking data in four key areas: Compliance organization reporting relationships and structure; compliance focus, scope and risk; metrics to gauge effectiveness; and budget, staffing and resources.

2011 Patent litigation study

PwC maintains a database of patent damages awards (from 1980 through 2010), collecting with specificity information about patent holder success rates, time-to-trial statistics, and practicing versus nonpracticing entity ("NPE") statistics (all from 1995 through 2010). This year's study adds industry classification and expanded NPE segmentation analyses.

Under the Table, On the Radar: Improving Anti-corruption Compliance for Financial Services Institutions

Financial services institutions do well to continuously adapt their anti-corruption programs and use consistent and clear leadership messaging.

Global State of Information Security Survey 2012

The 9th annual Global State of Information Security Survey 2012, a worldwide study by PwC, CIO magazine and CSO magazine. The survey – the largest of its kind – represents responses of over 9,600 IT, security and business executives in 138 countries across all industries.

Cyber Crisis Management: A bold approach to a bold and shadowy nemesis

Read on to learn more about how you can ensure that your business is well equipped to survive a cyber security incident or data breach of sensitive information by applying a new approach to cyber threat management that’s founded on the realities of the evolving cyber threat landscape.

Fraud in an economic upturn: Managing the downside of an upswing

We look ahead to highlight the issues that boards of directors and audit committees need to prepare for: the frauds that might emerge and the likely regulatory response to them.

A Guide to Forensic Accounting Investigation, Second Edition

Explore exactly what assurance auditors should be expected to provide and gain insight into alternatives to providing the capital markets more of what they are requiring—greater assurances that the financial statements they rely upon for investment decisions are free of material error, including fraud.

Developing a TIGHTer approach to corruption risk

Organizations can perform a formal, documented anti-corruption risk assessment using risk factors represented by the acronym TIGHT. The TIGHT methodology considers risk factors such as Type of official interactions, Industry, Geography, History, Tone at the Top, Training, Third Party interactions, and Transaction Controls. Regulatory expectations of compliance programs across the globe are increasing in sophistication and extent—TIGHT specifically addresses these expectations.

Brand monetisation - trust, but verify

To maximise brand monetisation, parties entering into a formal licensing agreement must do so in good faith and with a transparent and open approach. To avoid any future pitfalls, the expectations of both parties must be aligned.

2010 Securities Litigation Study

The PwC Securities Litigation Study, now in its 15th year, tracks US federal securities class actions filed since the passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA) in 1995.

Investing in emerging markets
Russia: Realizing opportunities and managing risks

More than 80% of CEOs who responded to PwC's 14th Annual Global CEO Survey in January this year said they're conducting strategy makeovers, driven in large part by the changing dynamics between the developed and emerging economies.

Daubert Challenges to Financial Experts: An 11-year study of trends and outcomes

This study analyzes post-Kumho Tire (2000-2010) challenges to financial expert witnesses under the Daubert standards. We identify observable trends in the frequency and outcome of these challenges based on written opinions in federal and state courts. The study examines the challenges to provide insight into the reasons experts were challenged and excluded and to delve more analytically into the causes of exclusions based on the qualifications of the experts and the relevance and reliability of the expert testimony. The study also summarizes some of the specific financial, statistical, economic, and valuation methods that courts have found inadmissible.

E-Discovery Challenges on Global Matters

Published in the March 2011 edition of Compliance Week, this article reviews 10 common challenges of global e-discovery and how to overcome them.

Why cybercrime matters to General Counsel

General counsel involvement in cybercrime is increasingly critical to protecting the organization and its intellectual property from the significant (and successful) nature of the cyber threat. By virtue of their pivotal role within the company, general counsel need to arrive at the scene of the crime early, remain involved continuously, and be prepared to act quickly in the event the company comes under one such silent, yet potentially catastrophic, attack.

Are you compromised but don't know it? A new philosophy for cyber security

Learn more about how you can better protect your business from cyber threats by applying a new philosophy to cyber security which is founded on the realities of the cyber threat landscape.

Lead Directors: A study of their growing influence and importance

This inaugural study addresses the current and future role of lead directors and discovers that they will be expected to delve further into shareholder and governance issues, be more involved in risk management, drive succession planning to ensure the process produces top leaders, and strengthen the independence of the board. Lead directors from 16 sectors with revenue ranging from $4 billion to $100 billion were surveyed on crisis management, succession planning, risk management and their roles and responsibilities.

Simple measures help smaller firms reduce risk efficiently

This PwC article, which appeared in BNA March 15, 2010, provides insight and advice on how smaller firms can address and mitigate fraud.

Selecting the right investigative resource

by Greg Regan, CPA/CFF, and Kristin Rivera, CPA/CFF
When does an allegation of financial statement fraud call for an in-house investigation, and when is hiring outside experts prudent?
Copyright 2010. American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Securities Litigation Third Quarter Update Shows a Decrease in Federal Securities Class Action Filings

Number of securities litigation class action filings through Q3 2009 has decreased 25% compared to the same time period in 2008; filings in healthcare industries may be showing an upward trend

2009 Global Economic Crime Survey: US supplement

Our study this year focused on relationships between the economic downturn and economic crime. Businesses operating in the US did not escape the impact of the global downturn unscathed.

10Minutes on combating corruption

10Minutes on Combating Corruption discusses the increase in prosecutions and fines being brought under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the spread of United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) regulations, and the importance of developing an anti-corruption compliance strategy.

Service blues: Effectively managing the multi-billion dollar threat from product warranty and support abuse

This paper delves into the warranty service abuse faced by the technology industry, analyzes the abuse worldwide and identifies opportunities for curbing the ongoing threats arising from this form of entitlement abuse.

Licensing in the boardroom

This supplement to Intellectual Asset Management magazine identifies and explains the key issues in intellectual property licensing.

Resolution of purchase price disputes

This paper discusses questions and issues from the perspective of a practitioner who has been engaged as an advisor to buyers and sellers as the accounting neutral.

Cracking down: The facts about risks in the procurement cycle

This paper addresses the challenges in understanding how procurement fraud is perpetrated, how it is prosecuted, and how procurement risk can be mitigated by corporate compliance and prevention programs.

Confronting corruption: The business case for an effective anti-corruption programme

PwC's Confronting corruption report examines what companies are currently doing to manage the risk of corruption and the steps they can consider to better protect themselves in the future.

An overview of the securities litigation landscape

First published in The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, this interview with Patricia Etzold provides an in-depth discussion of what's happening in the securities litigation arena, drawing on information from the PwC 2008 Securities Litigation study.

Contractor business ethics compliance program & disclosure requirements

This Briefing Paper discusses the development of the final rule, FAR Case 2007-006, “Contractor Business Ethics Compliance Program and Disclosure Requirements,” timing and applicability issues presented by the final rule, the rule’s mandatory disclosure, contractor code of business ethics and conduct, ongoing business ethics awareness and compliance program, and internal control system requirements, and enforcement.

Corruption crackdown

This paper addresses the trends in FCPA enforcement actions and helps clients understand how best to mitigate their risk in their international business operations.

Insights from an M&A monitor

A reprint from Executive Council: July/August 2009, Volume 6, Number 3.

Fraud in a downturn

This paper considers whether fraud, corruption, abuse and other integrity threats are changing during this period of global economic decline and, if so, how.

IP Value 2009

This unique publication is designed specifically for those holding senior positions in IP-owning companies. It reflects the fact that the identification, creation and exploitation of assets such as patents, trademarks, copyrights and know-how is now a mainstream boardroom issue.