by Juan Manuel González | Apr 3, 2023 | Noticias-en
The Standards Committee of the Central Reserve Bank issued the new Technical Standards for the Management of Money and Asset Laundering Risks, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (NRP-36).
The Central Reserve Bank approved the Regulations at the end of 2022, repealing from that date the “Technical Regulations for the Management of Money and Asset Laundering Risks, and Financing of Terrorism” (NRP-08).
The Regulations seek that the entities that are members of the financial system prevent the aforementioned risks, detect and report any unusual operation or possibly related to the prevention of money laundering.
The obligated subjects must have a continuous and documented process for the management of potential risks and the Compliance Officer will carry out periodic reviews for compliance with what is described in the Regulations.
The Rules also apply to electronic financial transactions, which oblige the entity to keep a log of access and use of the system to track the transactions made by customers.
What is also sought with these Regulations is to adapt them to the Instructions of the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) of the Attorney General’s Office issued on June 6, 2022.
For more information contact:
Uri Weinstock | BLP Partner | uweinstok@blplegal.com
by Juan Manuel González | Apr 3, 2023 | Noticias-en
The two main technologies that are disrupting the Compliance industry today are Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). What are the implications of these developing technologies for Compliance professionals?
We consulted the ChatGPT AI and this was their response:
Compliance in relation to artificial intelligence (AI) refers to compliance with regulations and ethical standards in the development and use of AI systems. This includes the protection of personal data, transparency in decision-making by AI systems, accountability for results, and ensuring that systems do not discriminate against or cause harm to individuals.
In the digital age, AI systems are being used in a wide range of industries, from healthcare to banking and finance. Due to their ability to process large amounts of data, these systems can help make more efficient and accurate decisions, but they also pose privacy and ethical challenges.
That is why AI Compliance is essential to ensure that these systems are used in a responsible and ethically sound manner. This may include implementing policies and procedures to ensure data privacy, transparency in decision-making by AI systems, ensuring non-discrimination, and accountability for results.
In addition, AI Compliance can also include auditing and monitoring of systems to verify their compliance with applicable regulations. This can help prevent negative consequences such as penalties, fines, and loss of public trust.
In short, AI Compliance is essential to ensure that systems are used responsibly and ethically. By complying with regulations and ethical standards, you can protect the privacy and rights of individuals, and ensure that AI technology contributes positively to society.
by Juan Manuel González | Apr 3, 2023 | Noticias-en
The importance of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) best practices is becoming increasingly visible in the region, as we have seen in previously published articles that included the opinion of experts from prestigious legal firms.
In recent years, due to the increased demands of investors, governments, consumers and interest groups in general, companies have had to rethink the way in which they develop their businesses, setting strategies for the incorporation and application of ESG criteria.
In the central and southern region of the continent, companies must understand the needs of customers and the community in which they produce their goods or services to make sustainable decisions. It is true that changing suppliers or materials to create a sustainable product is not cheap, but -as we have seen in the note “ ESG to generate shared value and new business ”- the long-term benefit is worth the effort.
The competitiveness of Latin American companies is a necessary condition to go out into the world and generate new markets. This intangible asset can be sustained with a solid ESG strategy, delivering a differentiating value proposition. As stated by Gerson Vaca, Partner of Basham, Ringe y Correaof Mexico “in terms of competitiveness, we believe that there is a triple added value. Today it is common practice for international companies to require their business partners and members of their supply chains to comply with ESG principles. By virtue of the above, a company that has an established ESG program will allow it to increase the scope of its business by complying with this increasingly requested requirement or otherwise, it will not be considered by these international companies”.
Companies that comply with ESG metrics offer an important competitive advantage as they are more profitable in the long term while complying with national and international standards that allow the attraction of socially responsible investments where investors seek to guarantee that their assets finance companies whose development it is done consciously benefiting the environment and society.
In this way, these topics are ceasing to be a prerogative for the business world, becoming a standard. . “All these strategies are non-financial factors that allow companies to analyze their risks and opportunities for growth, providing fundamental value for investors. ESG strategy and investments are becoming an important and growing part of the investment process in every company,” says Vivian Liberman, partner at BLP Central America.
But competitiveness is not the only north that the region looks to in terms of ESG. Measuring the impact of these strategies is a practice that is imposed because everything that can be measured can be improved .
A well-executed sustainability and compliance program should have short, medium, and long-term goals. “ESG compliance programs must include an implementation plan, as well as the metrics on which it will be analyzed and reviewed if these goals were met or in what percentages they have been achieved and what are the reasons why they were not achieved and ways correction, so the same program must establish the way in which its proper application will be measured”, Vaca details.
For Florencia Fuentealba, Associate of the Compliance Group at az in Chile: “When adopting an ESG strategy, it is not enough to make statements of value only, but as is done with financial factors, companies must incorporate objectives, goals and metrics to assess your progress. In my opinion, a good ESG strategy is one that can be measured and audited, as only then can we know if the desired impact is being generated or if it should be reconsidered”.
There are various metrics and companies dedicated to measuring the relative performance of companies in terms of their ESG attributes, Liberman explains. “The commitment acquired and the effectiveness of the changes made in their operations, practices to qualify the effectiveness with which they manage to comply with ESG issues can be measured.”
Another factor that organizations in the region are paying attention to is their own resources. These ESG strategies are also a motivational medium for both investors and workers. Respect and awareness of the environment, of social issues and transparency in how a company behaves are values for retaining talent and obtaining investment. They collaborate in the identification of risk and growth opportunities. They generate high value in new types of business with corporate culture. Currently, the markets are focused on a circular economy and a new model where the response to environmental and social challenges are essential for companies and the economy.
The experts from the firms that make up Compliance Latam agree that 2023 will be a year in which sustainability will be a protagonist on the business agenda and is consolidated as a great opportunity to align business activity with the response to social and environmental challenges.
by Juan Manuel González | Apr 3, 2023 | Noticias-en
The Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (“ MADS ”) published the draft of its Regulatory Agenda for the year 2023, for general public consultation. This sectoral planning document contains the general regulation projects that the MADS, as the entity that governs the public policy of the environmental sector, plans to develop.
This initial draft has a total of seventeen (17) regulatory projects, the development of which was assigned to different MADS dependencies, as shown below:
| Dependence |
Scope of the regulation project
(according to the draft of the published regulatory agenda) |
Semester or month of 2023 in which it will be submitted to public consultation |
| Climate Change and Risk Management Department |
” By which Decree 926 of 2017 and 446 of 2020 is modified ” (referring to the regulation of the procedure for the non-causation of the carbon tax) |
First semester |
| ” Regulation of the National Council on Climate Change (CNCC) and Strengthening of SISCLIMA “ |
First semester |
| ” By which is regulated what is related to the National Program of Tradable Quotas for the Emission of Greenhouse Gases (PNCTE) “ |
First semester |
| ” By which article 10 of Law 388 of 1997 is regulated with the purpose of including climate change management among the determinants of territorial planning plans “ |
Second semester |
| ” By which international transfers of mitigation results carried out in Colombia are regulated “ |
Second semester |
| “ Establishment of Carbon Budgets ” |
Second semester |
| Directorate of Environmental Planning of the Territory – SINA |
“By means of which part 3 is added to Book 1 of Decree 1076 of 2015, Sole Regulation of the Environment and Sustainable Development Sector, in relation to the coordination and articulation of the environmental entities of the National Environmental System and other provisions are adopted” |
Second semester
|
| Subdirectorate of Education and Participation |
“By means of which the activities and procedures that entail the sanction of community work in environmental matters are regulated, and the preventive measure of attendance at mandatory environmental education courses as part of the reprimand” |
February 2023 |
| “ Decree by means of which the National Indigenous Environmental Commission – CNAI is created ” |
To define
(“ Public consultation was held in February 2021, pending work route with the legal secretary of the presidency ”) |
| Directorate of Environmental, Sectoral and Urban Affairs
|
” By which Chapter 3 of Title 1 of Part 2 of Book 2 of Decree 1076 of 2015 is modified in relation to environmental licensing “ |
First semester |
| ” By which Title 6 of the Sole Regulatory Decree 1076 of 2015, of the Environment and Sustainable Development sector is modified and added in relation to the integral management of hazardous waste “ |
First semester |
| “By which the control of cross-border movements of non-hazardous waste destined for recovery activities is regulated and other provisions are adopted ”
OECD Recommendation [C(2001) 107 /FINAL] currently referenced as OECD Decision/LEGAL/0266; (Law 1950 of 2019)”
|
First semester
|
| “By which the mechanisms are established for the gradual implementation of the Basic Performance Standards – EBD in the storage, use or transfer facilities of solid waste, which are not subject to environmental licensing.
Council Recommendation on Ecological Waste Management [C(2004) 100] – Law 1950 of 2019″”
|
First semester |
| Directorate of Forests, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services |
“By which the collection and use of biological resources are regulated for bioprospecting, commercial and industrial purposes” |
First semester |
| “Structuring of the proposal to update Decree 1076 of 2015, in relation to the topics in column H. “(” Permits for collecting specimens of wild species of biological diversity for purposes of non-commercial scientific research and biological collections in the country ”). |
First semester |
| ” Regulation of Law 2206 of 2022 “By means of which the productive use of guadua and bamboo is encouraged ” Regulatory Decree Art. 4 and 6. ” |
First semester |
| Designation of an area of Lake Tota as a Ramsar wetland of international importance. (regulates Law 357 of 1997). Within the framework of the management and work that has been carried out in Lake Tota, for more than two years, in which progress has been made in the generation of cartographic and thematic information, with which the polygon proposal was built and the FIR file (Ramsar Information Sheet), additionally, there are already different spaces for socialization and work with the different actors in the region. ” |
First semester |
In the draft regulatory agenda, for each of the projects mentioned above, in addition to a general overview of the topic subject to regulation, reference is made to: (i) who are the MADS officials in charge of their development; (ii) the entities that will participate in its design and those with competence for its issuance; (iii) the rules that would be modified with its issuance and the type of legal instrument that would be used for it.
For more information, contact:
Oscar Tutasaura | Partner Posse Herrera Ruiz | oscar.tutasaura@phrlegal.com
by Juan Manuel González | Apr 3, 2023 | Noticias-en
The Teleworking contract and the Guidelines for the Right to Disconnect from Work are governed by a series of guidelines (Ministerial Agreement MDT-2022-237 – December 23, 2022).
– What is its objective and for whom is it applicable?
Its objective is to regulate teleworking and work disconnection, this is mandatory for all employers that apply teleworking among their workers.
– Is there a difference between face-to-face and teleworking?
The difference is the place where the worker will carry out his work activities. This can be the worker’s home or any specific place.
The functions, rights, schedules and activities of the worker will remain the same.
– What is its validity and how should it be executed?
The validity of teleworking must be defined between the parties after they agree that the activities to be carried out are carried out in this modality.
Teleworking must be carried out by the worker in the specifications of his position, with the employer being responsible for providing the necessary materials and equipment for it to be carried out correctly, taking into account that the values for telephone and internet are considered “tools of work”, therefore, they will not form part of the remuneration for settlement purposes, but they must be borne by the employer.
Additionally, the employer must ensure that they adopt the respective health and safety measures within the space where teleworking will take place (inputs, conducts and conditions). In the event that the place where the teleworking will be carried out is solely the will of the worker, he must declare that he will adopt all the corresponding security measures.
– What is the registration process?
The original teleworking contract must be registered in the Ministry of Labor system within a period of no more than 30 days.
In the event that this modality is applied to a current contract, the employer must register, within a period of 15 days, the period of time in which the work activities will be carried out in the teleworking modality.
– What is the right of disconnection?
It is the right that workers have that, once their working day is over, they cannot establish communications, issue orders or requirements for at least 12 continuous hours in a 24-hour period.
The following will be excepted from this rule: (i) the circumstances established in art. 52 of the Labor Code, and; (ii) people who fulfill management roles or positions of trust.
– The disconnection policy
To comply with the right to disconnection of workers, employers must have a Disconnection Policy which must contain:
1. Training measures for working hours, teleworking and the right to disconnect;
2. Establish the guidelines of the supervisors or immediate bosses for the requirements outside of working hours;
3. Guidelines to follow so that the use of technology does not affect the enjoyment of work rest, and;
4. Internal procedure for receiving complaints for non-compliance with the Labor Disconnection Policy.
This policy must be implemented within a period of 90 days from the issuance of the Ministerial Agreement.
For more information contact:
Daniel Castelo | Senior Associate Bustamante Fabara | dcastelo@bustamantefabara.com
Maria Rosa Fabara | Partner Bustamante Fabara | mrfabara@bustamantefabara.com