TRACE Releases 2019 Bribery Risk Matrix, Launches Bribery Risk Typology

Wednesday 13 November 2019 08:51
TRACE, the world's leading anti-bribery standard setting organization, has released the 2019 TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix, which measures business bribery risk in 200 jurisdictions. TRACE also launched the new Bribery Risk Typology and interactive map, which provides comparative context for interpreting Matrix scores based on factors such as state fragility and economic complexity. Both tools are available in the TRACE Matrix data browser.

According to this year's TRACE Matrix data, Somalia, South Sudan, North Korea, Yemen and Venezuela presented the highest risk of bribe demands. New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland presented the lowest bribery risk.

"The TRACE Matrix provides multidimensional, actionable insights about business bribery risk that can be used by companies to develop more targeted compliance procedures," TRACE President Alexandra Wrage said.

Originally published in 2014 to meet a need in the business community for more reliable information about commercial bribery risk worldwide, the TRACE Matrix addresses the risk that companies will be asked for bribes or will confront bribery schemes in a given jurisdiction.

Publicly available at no cost, the TRACE Matrix helps companies examine the following conditions that allow commercial bribery to flourish: (1) the nature and extent of government interaction with the private sector; (2) societal attitudes toward bribery, and the government's ability to enforce its prohibition; (3) the degree of governmental transparency; and (4) the ability of civil society to monitor and expose corruption.

The Bribery Risk Typology—new this year—groups jurisdictions based on factors that have been identified as having a significant effect on the bribery risk environment at the national level, including state fragility, resource wealth, enforcement, and economic size and complexity.

"The new Bribery Risk Typology presents practical context helpful for interpreting TRACE Matrix scores," Wrage said. "For example, fragile states with autocratic regimes can be expected to present a different set of concerns than stable, economically complex democracies. The Bribery Risk Typology allows users to draw more meaningful conclusions than would be possible from a simple global ranking."

The TRACE Matrix is publicly available at traceinternational.org/trace-matrix. The Matrix Data Browser can be found at matrixbrowser.traceinternational.org.

View a 90-second video about the TRACE Matrix here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9qjiKlmdKQ&feature=youtu.be ].

About TRACE

TRACE is a globally recognized anti-bribery business association and leading provider of shared-cost third party risk management solutions. To learn more about TRACE, visit www.TRACEinternational.org.