Does your company need a stand-alone conflicts of interest policy?

Last month, Pro Publica published an extensive report regarding a dispute on whether Goldman Sachs should be sanctioned by the Federal Reserve for failing to have a firm-wide policy on conflicts of interest.  An examiner for the Fed had argued in favor of such an action but the firm contended – successfully – that the COI provision in the company code of conduct coupled with COI policies for various of its divisions was good enough.

At least for C&E aficionados, the story is an interesting one (and the issue, in my view, a close call), particularly given Goldman Sachs’ recent COI history.  (See this post and this one.)   But for readers of this blog the piece may be most useful as an occasion to ask: Does my company have the COI policy that it needs?

To begin, a great many businesses don’t need a stand-alone COI policy. For many what’s in the code of conduct is policy enough. But there are, in my view, quite a few companies that should have stand-alone policies but don’t.

Five things to ask in a COI policy needs assessment

Certainly where companies have client relationships that could give rise to COIs there is a good reason to have a stand-alone policy, as such businesses generally face a greater array of COI risks than do others. Such risks tend to warrant a fuller discussion of COI standards and mitigation than can fit into a code of conduct. Put otherwise., companies that have relationships of trust with clients tend to have higher COI risks – both in terms of likelihood and impact – than do other sorts of businesses, and that should be reflected in how formal and extensive the related mitigation should be.

But other types of organizations should  consider drafting stand-alone policies too, at least if they:

– Have had more than their share of COIs in recent years, as a stand-alone policy can help signal to key constituencies resolve in dealing appropriately with COIs.

– Face more diverse, complex, non-obvious or culturally challenging COI possibilities than the average company has.  The more there is to say about different sorts of COI risks, the greater the need for a stand-alone policy, as there simply won’t be enough room in the code to do justice to all pertinent issues.

– Have significant COI-related process needs – in such areas as disclosure, management and auditing. Here too the code may not offer enough space to deal with the company’s requirements.

– Face heightened COI expectations for other reasons (e.g., non-profits, or other organizations that could be held to a “Caesar’s wife” standard of ethicality).

And don’t forget organizational justice

Even companies that don’t fit into any of the above categories should consider developing a stand-alone COI policy as a means of promoting “organizational justice.” As noted in this earlier post: “The special harm that COIs can cause to organizational justice arises from their frequently personal nature: because COIs often involve a personal benefit to an individual employee that is denied to others, the latter (i.e., rule abiding employees) can feel personally harmed (from a relative perspective) by the COI in a way that they would not feel, for example, with an antitrust offense or violation of export regulations.” Implementing a stand-alone COI policy can thus, in my view, help elevate the confidence employees have in the overall ethicality of their companies. Of course, to do so the policy must be sufficiently promoted and enforced.  But being successful here could have a ripple effect – by enhancing trust that management is committed to doing the right thing generally, which can be utterly vital to compliance and ethics program efficacy.

Note that while this consideration presumably applies to all companies, it does not mean that all companies need stand-alone COI policies.  But it is a factor that all companies should weigh in determining whether to implement such a policy.

Drafting a policy

If one does opt to create a stand-alone COI policy there are obviously lots of choices to be made in determining the content of the policy, and the links below to prior posts in the COI Blog might be useful in that regard.

To start, you might see this overview,  which includes links to several leading companies’ policies (that could be helpful samples from a form – as well as substance – perspective).

Regarding the key question of what COIs to address in the policy, a fairly comprehensive list is included in this post about certifications (the content of which is equally applicable to policies).

Here are some more specific discussions:

–  G&E generally  and gifts between employees.

— Supervising family members in the workplace.

— Moonlighting.

– Serving on another company’s board.

Next, regarding standards for allowing COIs to continue and related process issues, see this post and this one.

Finally, note that within the above posts there are links to many other posts and resources that might be useful in drafting or revising a COI policy.