TRACE International

History
TRACE is a non-profit membership organization that pools resources to provide multinational companies and their third party intermediaries with anti-bribery compliance tools, training and due diligence solutions. TRACE was founded in 2001 by Alexandra Wrage and is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland. TRACE has a presence in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Membership Services
The organization’s primary focus is to provide anti-bribery compliance support to multinational companies. TRACE helps its member companies to ensure that their employees and commercial intermediaries are complying with anti-bribery laws such as the , the UK Bribery Act of 2010 and the standards set by international conventions including the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and the United Nations Convention against Corruption. It provides its members with a suite of business-friendly tools and resources which include: an online Resource Center with foreign local law guidance, model compliance policies and research on corporate best practices; online training on key compliance issues; benchmarking events; a third party risk management platform; and Gifts & Hospitality Tracking Software. TRACE’s global network of partner law firms provide local law guidance on a pro-bono basis.
Risk Based Due Diligence Services
TRACE offers a variety of risk-based diligence solutions and third party management support. These services include TRACEsort, a customizable risk assessment tool that helps organizations rank third parties by risk; TRACEcertification, a comprehensive due diligence review that meets international standards and allows third parties to share their due diligence reports with multiple business partners thus reducing screening costs and duplication of effort; and other customizable risk-based due diligence services.
TRACE Initiatives
TRACEpublic
In response to calls for greater transparency following the Panama Papers, TRACE launched TRACEpublic in 2016, the first global beneficial ownership register which allows companies, regardless of country of headquarters, to voluntarily share their beneficial ownership information. Companies may list their ownership information or search the database at no cost. Developed initially with the RAND Corporation, the TRACE Matrix measures business bribery risk in 199 countries and serves as a risk assessment tool for companies operating in foreign markets. The overall risk score is a combined and weighted score of four domains - Business Interactions with the Government, Anti-bribery Laws and Enforcement, Government and Civil Service Transparency and Capacity for Civil Society Oversight, including the role of the media - as well as nine subdomains. The Matrix is updated every two years by TRACE.
TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting
The TRACE Prize for Investigative Reporting recognizes journalism that uncovers business bribery with the goal of increasing commercial transparency globally. and The Wall Street Journal were awarded the inaugural prizes in 2016 for uncovering global networks of corruption respectively.
TRACE Scholar Program
The TRACE Scholar Program funds students from developing countries to pursue an LLM with the aim of developing young leaders in the field of anti-corruption. Participating partner law schools include the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia; Georgetown University; University of Washington School of Law and . To date, TRACE has awarded scholarships to LLM students from India, Ecuador, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda and Ukraine.
Innovation in Anti-Bribery Compliance Award (IACA)
The TRACE Innovation in Anti-Bribery Compliance Award (IACA) is awarded annually at the TRACE Forum, the company’s anti-bribery compliance benchmarking conference held in Washington, D.C. The IACA recognizes creative, far-reaching efforts by multinational companies to develop anti-bribery practices that advance transparency in business. Awardees of the IACA include Cambridge University Press (2017), Intel Corporation (2016) and Dell Inc. (2014).
Bribe Busters
Bribe Busters is an animated series of short videos created for children to raise awareness of the effects of corruption on development, good governance and equality and to inspire children to take a stand against bribery in their everyday lives. The videos are available on YouTube in English, French, and Spanish with additional languages coming soon.
How to Pay a Bribe
This series of books, published most recently in 2016 includes essays offering an insider’s view on how bribery and corruption impact international business.

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