Dacheng lawyers to assist clients in compliance rectification under multilateral bank sanctions with ISO 37301 standards

Recently, a project team consisting of Senior Partners Litong Chen and Xu Yongqian of Dentons Law Offices has successfully won the bid for a compliance rectification project of a centrally administered enterprise in response to multilateral bank sanctions. This project is the first one for the energy industry to implement the compliance management system standard ISO 37301, as well as the first one for the energy industry to implement the compliance management system standard ISO 37301 globally in response to multilateral bank sanctions.

Prior to the compliance rectification, the project team has helped the enterprise deal with the investigation of the multilateral bank and obtained the corresponding work results. Currently the enterprise has entered the second phase of compliance rectification. Specifically, on the one hand, the compliance rectification shall be carried out according to the Guidelines for Integrity and Compliance issued by the multilateral bank; on the other hand, the Guidelines for Integrity and Compliance shall be included in the enterprise's compliance obligations according to ISO37301: 2021 Guidelines for Requirements and Use of Compliance Management System. And the enterprise shall be guided to implement the compliance management system standard and obtain certification by referring to ISO 37301. The guidance of ISO 37301 will promote the enterprise to further enhance its compliance management level and international and domestic reputation, turning "danger" into "opportunity", and making compliance create value. This has also brought new ideas and new measures to more than one thousand Chinese enterprises which have been sanctioned by the World Bank and other multilateral banks to deal with the crisis.

The Principal of the Project, Mr. Litong Chen, is a China Certified Expert of the ISO TC309 Organizational Governance Technical Committee, and a member of the WG4 (Working Group IV) Working Group of Compliance Management System. Mr. Xu Yongqian is the Principal Expert of the Chinese Group of Experts on Compliance with International Standards, and together they participated in the formulation of the ISO37301: 2021 Guidelines for Requirements and Use of Compliance Management System, which is adopted for the compliance rectification.

Since the promulgation of the ISO 37301: 2021 Requirements on and Guidelines for Use of Compliance Management System (the "Compliance Management System") by the ISO International Organization for Standardization on April 13, 2021, it has become the general trend for Chinese enterprises to bid on the development of a compliance management system based on such standards and enforce the standards, that is, once the standards enforcement certification is passed, all sorts of requirements become requirements for compliance. On April 21, 2022, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Guangdong Province issued the Action Plan for "Enhancement Year of Compliance Management" for Provincial Enterprises, requiring that through three years of efforts, all provincial enterprises will be able to pass the ISO 37301 standard compliance certification. Dentons are playing an increasingly large role and making a big contribution in this area – dozens of companies have signed up relevant project teams to coach them in complying with ISO 37301 standard. The industry covers banking and finance, transportation, oil and gas, electricity, energy, seaport investment, marine transport, automobile manufacturing, port operations, group finance, engineering construction, port affairs, container terminals, storage and transportation and other areas.