Compliance or Regulatory Compliance consists of procedures and good practices that govern policies and procedures set. It seeks to ensure that the entire company, including managers, employees and related agents, comply with the regulatory framework applicable and with its obligations. Companies must identify and classify the operational and legal risks they face to establish the internal mechanisms for prevention, systems and controls.

One of the employers’ and management top priorities is to understand their responsibilities regarding the legislation that applies to their organization, even more so after the Criminal Code’s reform that came into force in 2015 (Law 1/2015). These obligations can be classified into:

• Mandatory compliance: the legal regulation and court orders.
• Voluntary compliance: sectoral codes, internal policies, good practices, Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct.

There are five measures and actions that must be carefully coordinated and planned:

1. Identification of the risks that the company faces, taking into account their severity, impact and probability.
2. Prevention through control procedures.
3. Monitoring and detection, evaluating the effectiveness of the controls by periodic audits.
4. Problem resolution and measures implementation.
5. Counselling to managers and workers on all the necessary information to carry out their work under current regulations.

Regarding current regulations, it should be noted the ISO 19600 Standard on “Compliance Management System” (2015), a set of rules issued by the International Standardization Organization (ISO), consisting of standards, system guides and specific management tools applicable to all organizations and fields. Its value is found in the mandatory nature of its compliance and the prestige of ISO, which enjoys great international recognition and acceptance. The ISO standards were created to offer guidance, coordination, simplification, and unification of companies’ criteria to reduce costs and increase effectiveness and standardize the products and services rules for international organizations.