The Postgraduate Course in Compliance is structured into ten subjects taught by professors and specialists in corporate compliance, who provide the student with expert-level knowledge that makes up the discipline of legal compliance in organizations and companies.
In parallel, and throughout the program, case studies will be used in the simulated immersion methodology.
Aspects of Business Ethics, compliance, and responsibility applied to the world of company management, and projected onto aspects that usually produce internally applicable standards. Relationship of business ethics with compliance with regulations and the establishment of voluntary standards above the legal thresholds of mandatory legal compliance.
Importance of good practices and international compliance standards as sources of obligations. Their interpretive and even binding nature. Soft Law sources.
- Traditional system of sources of law and obligations.
- Sources of Soft Law and practical efficacy.
- Taxonomy of technical standards (ISO, ISA, and ISAE).
Modern business management models framing compliance tasks within models integrated with Governance and Risk Management (GRC models). This section will deal with the interactions between these three spheres that the compliance officer regulates.
- Concept of Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC).
- GRC integrated management models: applications and solutions.
- Locations of the compliance function in the business organization chart.
- Interactions between compliance, internal control, and internal audit.
Due to the proliferation of liability rules that affect companies (mandatory or self-imposed), corporate compliance systems are needed that allow effective management of compliance. For these purposes, both international and national standards are being developed that determine the state of the art in this matter.
- Concept of CMS and compliance areas.
- Generic and specific standards.
- Organic compliance structures.
- Profile and functions of the Compliance Officer.
- Compliance Policy and CMS.
- ISO standard in CMS.
- ISO standard in ABMS.
Both international and national standards in matters of legal compliance use a series of principles and components that are developed in the environment of internal control of business management. This section deals with these generic reference frameworks and the compliance principles that have been developed through them.
- The COSO Framework: COSO I, COSO II and COSO III.
- The OCEG Capability model.
- OECD Guidelines.
- Profile and functions of the Compliance Officer.
- The Australian Standards AS 3806-2006.
- The technical audit standard IDW AssS 980.
Compliance frameworks specially adapted to technical matters or activity sector have been developed. Among these are those for the prevention and defence against corruption, which have become models of ethical management and a source of inspiration for a large number of regulations on the matter that compliance officers must be aware of.
- The "Corporate Guidelines" of the US Sentencing Commission.
- The OECD rules against corruption.
- The North American Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
- The British Bribery Act.
- The compliance model of the Spanish Penal Code.
- Tax Governance, Tax Morality, and Tax Transparency.
- Money laundering prevention model.
- Compliance environments for competition matters.
- Consumer protection environments in the banking sector.
- Human rights compliance models.
- Fraud prevention management models.
- Privacy management models.
The practical application of compliance and corporate compliance models requires the following of techniques developed both as a result of generic and specific reference frameworks regarding compliance.
- Risk assessment: prioritization of risk behaviours.
- Policies, procedures, controls, and investigations.
- Map of compliance risk and criminal prevention.
- Organizational measures.
The practical application of compliance models in compliance involves implementing detection mechanisms and subsequently developing investigation processes that will combine respect for the law with the most advanced forensic techniques.
- Reporting channels and investigation protocols.
- Guarantees of privacy, defence, and non-retaliation.
- Procedural guarantees in the internal investigation.
- Forensic investigation techniques.
- Obtaining and processing digital evidence.
The behaviour of both individuals and groups of people must be taken into consideration both in the design and in the application of compliance models in a company. This section will address essential issues of social psychology that affect the field of compliance and that the compliance officer must take into account.
- Risk assessment: prioritization of risk behaviours.
- Policies, procedures, controls, and investigations.
- Map of compliance risk and criminal prevention.
The responsible behaviour of both individuals and groups of people must be taken into consideration both in the design and in the application of corporate compliance models. This section will address essential social psychology issues that affect the field of compliance.
- Framing techniques and influence on the propensity to comply.
- Communication techniques in adverse circumstances.
- Communication in the media.
Through this practical case in a company, an inappropriate commercial initiative will be managed from the point of view of legal compliance, through different moments:
- Moment 1: the compliance officer participates in a product launch committee where a very beneficial initiative is proposed from a business point of view, but which violates Competition Law.
- Moment 2: the compliance officer participates in a Board of Directors meeting where the previous initiative is evaluated.
A case of deliberate non-compliance in a business area and the complaint systems will be managed using this practical case in a company:
- Moment 1: an employee reports a serious case of corruption to the compliance department. The CO studies it. It affects the person in charge of the most relevant business unit of the organization.
- Moment 2: after an investigation period involving the purchasing department, the case of corruption is confirmed. The CO prepares a report for the Board of Directors.
- Moment 3: the CO reports the corruption case to the Board of Directors.
Through this case study, a situation will be managed where the person responsible for compliance in a specific area is not aligned with the compliance objectives declared by the organization and this leads to a criminal case:
- Moment 1: at a Compliance Committee meeting, the head of the tax area reports the execution of high-risk tax restructuring. The compliance policy and the values of the organization are expressly declared as being conservative. The CO expresses their opinion.
- Moment 2: the CO presents the monthly compliance report to the Board of Directors. They explain their views on the tax initiative.
Once you have passed the program, you will receive the following electronic degree certification (eTítulo©): Expert diploma in Compliance, awarded by Pompeu Fabra University. The eTítulo© will be issued in Catalan, Spanish and English.
The electronic degree certification (eTítulo© ) is an authentic digital degree, issued in pdf format and electronically signed, with the same legal validity as if it were in paper format.
The Postgraduate Course in Compliance also includes the possibility of participating in practical activities and activities for personal and professional growth such as:
- UPF-BSM Inside: is a group of interdisciplinary subjects (applied data, communication, creativity, innovation and project management, sustainability and leadership among others) that, if you take this program, you can access at no additional cost. They are 100% online and you can take them throughout the academic year at your own pace, as they have been designed as self-study subjects.
You need to have a university graduate or a higher in order to apply.
Other candidates without the required university degree may take part in the selection process for the postgraduate course in compliance management by virtue of their academic or professional merits and the place of work they occupy.
Those participants who do not have Spanish as one of their mother tongues or who did not have it as a teaching language in their training studies, must prove with the administration that they have at least a B2 level of Spanish (Common European Framework of Reference), as well as fluently take part in a personal interview with the academic director, if necessary.
Our admission process consists of a rigorous evaluation of each application to preserve the quality of the group as well as the training, experience, and work capacity of all students.
The UPF Barcelona School of Management offers you different scholarships and ways of financing so that you can take any of our compliance training programs without worries. We offer you the opportunity to finance part of your program on regulatory compliance in companies, either through scholarships that reward your talent, through grants from entities dedicated to promoting education, or through collaboration agreements with financial entities.
The Postgraduate Course in Compliance is aimed at professionals, national and international, with extensive experience in the area of Law, who wish to acquire knowledge in matters of regulatory compliance in a company.
The Postgraduate Course in Compliance provides a complete vision of the areas that make up the discipline of regulatory and legal compliance in organizations. Its objective is to provide you with the necessary knowledge to develop analysis of compliance risks in companies. In this way, the scope of compliance and the precise tools for its management are defined.
Develops knowledge about indicative law and mandatory law at the national and international level. Learn how to design regulatory compliance strategies. Get an overview of the business ethics and responsibility regulations imposed by organizations such as the UN and the OECD. In addition, we discuss specific examples applied to business management, such as the UK Bribery Act and US corporate guidelines.
Use case studies to discover how to act as a compliance officer in situations of detecting corrupt business practices during internal audits. By proposing how to resolve these cases, you will acquire the knowledge of compliance needed to design compliance policies and Compliance Management Systems (CMS).
The postgraduate course is taught in collaboration with KPMG.
The Postgraduate Course in Compliance teaches you to efficiently develop the functions and responsibilities of the Compliance Officer at an expert level.
The subjects have been designed by law professors from UPF and the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid and by experts in legal liability and compliance from KPMG.
The contents are adapted to the reality of the compliance officer and regulatory compliance in companies. Learn about the latest updates to the Organic Law of the Penal Code and discover the most current anti-crime management systems in companies.
The Postgraduate Course in Compliance is aimed at professionals who wish to acquire specific knowledge in matters of liability and regulatory compliance in a company.
You will share a classroom with active professionals who aim to complete and update their knowledge, such as company lawyers, economists, internal and external auditors, consultants, and other management professionals.
The team of teachers for the Postgraduate Course in Compliance is formed of specialists and professionals whose professional career and expertise is strongly linked to the discipline of compliance and legal practice.
The postgraduate course evaluation methodology for training as a compliance officer requires the presentation of a final project by the student, which must be done in a group of a minimum of 3 people, and which consists of the writing of documents that describe a Compliance Policy.
Compliance management students who so wish may also submit the System that develops it. The work consists of providing a working hypothesis (type of organization to which the documents will refer) as well as one or two documents, depending on whether they want to write the Policy or also the description of the compliance system (they can choose). It will be a practical work that in parallel will enable them to prepare these documents for their own companies.
- Compliance Officer (CO)
- Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)
- Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer (CECO)
- Compliance adviser or consultant
- Compliance management in law firms
- Compliance management in companies
The corporate compliance program combines theory and practice with a highly participatory methodology for students. The teaching objective is to deepen both the conceptual and methodological frameworks in order to understand and analyse the world of regulatory compliance, as well as the most advanced practical applications in compliance management currently in use, and the jurisprudential treatment of compliance efforts.
The Postgraduate in Compliance, a program with an international focus, prepares you to work with the regulations to which an organization is subject. Learn to manage corporate compliance both nationally and internationally.
•Mònica Caellas Camprubí
Criminal lawyer. CAELLAS office
•Almudena Curero Saiz
Lawyer Legal Compliance Associate at KPMG
•Olga de la Cruz Herrero
Partner and lawyer at Farriols & De la Cruz Abogados
Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University
•Fernando Esteso Tórtola
Senior manager CC-Forensic at KPMG
•Itziar Galindo Jiménez
Partner at CTS Tax at KPMG
•Raul García Pavesio
Senior manager CC-Forensic at KPMG
•Dr Beatriz Goena Vives
Associate Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Barcelona
Consultant at MOLINS.
•Dr Víctor Gómez Martín
Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Barcelona
•Jerusalem Hernández Velasco
Partner at CC-Sustainability at KPMG
•Dr Adán Nieto Martín
Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Castilla-La Mancha
•Dr Ana Carolina Oliveira
Research Teaching Staff at Pompeu Fabra University
•Ramón Pueyo Viñuales
Partner at CC-Sustainability at KPMG
•Dr Ramon Ragués i Vallès
Professor of Criminal Law at Pompeu Fabra University
•Patricia Reverter Guillot
Partner at CC-Sustainability at KPMG
•Mª Jesús Rico Martínez
Partner at the Government, Risk and Compliance department at KPMG
•Victòria Siguán Cervera
Competition lawyer
Principal Case Officer. Competition and Markets Authority
Postgraduate Course in Compliance
