SAN FRANCISCO & SAO PAULO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--STEELE CIS, Inc., a global business advisory and risk management company providing compliance intelligence to multinational businesses, today announced the opening of its new office in Sao Paulo, Brazil to support International companies doing business in Brazil, and Brazilian companies operating globally.
Brazil is the 7th largest economy in the world and the largest economy in Latin America. However, with a sharp decline in annual economic growth, the competitive pressures in Brazil are pushing the ethical boundaries of the tactics being used to achieve success. Both local and multinational clients in Brazil are making moves to ensure their company’s ethical compass stays true north.
“We have seen a remarkable increase in business, partly because of the ABAC movement globally, but primarily because of the Clean Companies Act going into effect January, 2014. Understanding the business culture and having local compliance expertise to create compliance controls is in high demand,” says Marcos Rosales, President of STEELE Latin America.
Brazil is the fourth largest market for STEELE’s compliance intelligence and due diligence services and a major focus of STEELE’s continued growth.
More than 220 of the Fortune 500 companies have branches or regularly conduct business in Brazil and regulators are making sure that industry knows that Brazil is changing. A wide array of enforcement agencies, both civil and criminal, is expected to try to make their mark with the Clean Company Act and cross-border cooperation among prosecutors and regulators is expected to be the norm, rather than the exception. This perception of change is being recognized by Transparency International, which updated its Corruption Perception Index to reflect an improvement in the corruption climate between 2010 and 2012.
"Our continued expansion in Latin America highlights the region's growing significance in STEELE’s regulatory compliance business,” says Mr. Rosales. “Having opened our regional headquarters in Mexico City in 2004, this new office in Sao Paulo increases our access to ground-truth intelligence in South America. It will enable us to be more competitive and improve response times for our multinational clients.”
STEELE employs more than 60 compliance professionals throughout Latin America and expects to increase headcount by 25% before the end of the year to meet the continued investment in corporate compliance programs; Q2 revenue for the region increased by 37% over the same quarter last year.
ABOUT STEELE CIS
STEELE Compliance and Investigation Services (CIS) is a global business advisory and compliance intelligence firm offering regulatory solutions that manage supply chain and third party risks. With more than 20 years of experience and engagements in more than 170 countries, STEELE CIS provides Fortune 1000 companies and mid-sized businesses with pragmatic solutions, including Regulatory Due Diligence, Managed Services to support legal and compliance departments and Third-Party Program Advisory Services that use benchmarking to drive compliance analytics. www.SteeleCIS.com