Speaker 1: ♪ Welcome to Corporate Governance and Compliance. It's only relatively recently that corporate governance and compliance have come to the prominence in the business world. Corporate governance is concerned with both the internal aspects of the company, such as internal control, and external aspects, such as an organization's relationship with its shareholders and other stakeholders. Compliance, on the other hand, is concerned with the process by which an organization seeks to ensure that employees and other constituents conform to applicable norms, which can include either the requirements of laws and regulations or the internal rules of the organization itself. This course will help you understand the driving force behind the development of corporate governance in the last two decades and the importance of corporate governance to the company itself, to directors and shareholders, and other stakeholders. In addition, the course will also introduce you to the ways in which the compliance function is carried out, including internal enforcement and self-reporting, effective risk management, data privacy, anti-money laundering, anti-bribery, and insider trading measures. Let's look at the way in which the course is structured. Module A introduces you to the Anglo-American model of corporate governance, which emphasizes the rights of shareholders. The module then provides an overview of the roles that each of the shareholders, the board of directors, and senior management play in a company. As you will see in your study guide, this module places particular emphasis on duties and responsibilities of the board of directors and also describes different models of board structures around the world. Module B introduces you to compliance and examines the way in which an effective compliance function within an organization is carried out. The module places particular emphasis on internal enforcement measures, which include internal investigations, training and monitoring, and then it looks at the role of civil regulators in compliance, effective whistleblower policies, information and data security, and codes of ethics and social responsibility. Module C introduces you to some of the basic concepts related to bribery and corruption, money laundering, terrorism financing, and counterterrorism measures. Each of these areas is extremely broad and complex, and this module attempts to provide you with a basic overview of key legislation and issues related to each of these areas. Finally, Module D focuses on compliance issues in the financial sector. It first introduces you to risk management within a company and analyzes ways in which the risk management and compliance functions operate within an organization. The module then turns to the analysis of insider dealing regimes in the UK and the US and some of the key differences between the two regimes. We conclude by looking at the main types of bank fraud and the ways in which banks can protect against it. The starting point in your studies is of course your study guide, which introduces and explains the main concepts of the course. It is not, however, intended to replace your independent study of essential reading materials, but rather to help you navigate those other materials effectively. A few words about exam preparation. When preparing for your exam, always make sure that you are able to meet all of the learning outcomes for each of the relevant sections. Try to respond to all of the activities in your study guide before you look at the responses. And of course, make sure to read and attempt to answer simple exam questions. When answering an exam question, spend some time planning your response in order to ensure that it's well structured, substantiated by evidence and clear to follow. Always delve into answering the exact question posed and don't waste time on long background sections because you will not get any points for that. Also, make sure that you don't merely regurgitate the theory, but that you critically apply theory to the facts of the relevant fact pattern. I hope that you find the study guide and the accompanying materials useful and interesting and that this course will be beneficial for your future studies and career.