The FCPA aka Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 1977 impacts every US Company even if they do 
business outside US. Due to the goals set by the Obama administration to double the US exports in the coming 5 years, FCPA compliance will play an important role for many small and medium sized US organizations. The two provisions of FCPA are ‘Accounting’ and ‘Anti-bribery’.
Below are some rules or principals of FCPA that your legal department should keep in mind to stay compliant with banking regulations.
Ground Yourself in Reality
Mostly, managers and lawyers want to believe that they work for a company which is ethical and the employees very law-abiding. This positive bias puts a blind in front of the eyes of business people as they can’t access the reality of international business – which is filled with bribery, false and unrecorded transactions, corrupt activities etc. Not that US is a complete innocent zone, but it is much more difficult to access the condition of foreign countries where the US managers lack cultural context and suffer the problem of language barrier.
Understand the Risk
You should understand the risk your company might get into, under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, if you get involved in international bribery. The definition of a ‘government official’ is quite broad in FCPA terminology and goes on including low-level officials of government organizations as well. You should know and access every way you are transacting with government customers and employees.
Training is Important
Train your employees, management, board as well as third parties distributing your products with the compliance rules. In cases when you have budget constraints, you should at least train your board, managers and employees. This is because most of them have little or no experience with ‘on the ground’ international business, and if some of them have it, they are likely to have out of date FCPA compliance knowledge.
Keep a Track
Establish a track and control on the expenditures the company incurs and the assets it accrues during international travel. Financial companies in the US are barely familiar with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the existing processes are not likely to be tuned with the FCPA regulations and issues. FCPA is a criminal stature, and companies have been known to have been prosecuted for really small bribes which don’t even have monetary value. Making sure your company has all the books and records, you will prevent from incurring any corrupt payments.
Maintain Clear Guidelines
You should also include clear terms of FCPA in all international contracts. This process is quite inexpensive, and it also reaffirms the fact that your company is not going to tolerate any nuisance from both your sales staff as well as foreign partners.
FCPA is not all that mysterious. Most US companies and managers fail because of lack of in-house counsel in focusing what needs to be done and bring out the resources required to protect the company. If your company is unwilling to put in adequate FCPA compliance programs, stay away from risky business environments.