Prof Jesper Lau Hansen of the University of Copenhagen opened the conference with his speech Sweeping changes in European Financial Markets: How the crisis has fundamentally changed the way financial markets are regulated and supervised. One of his pet peeves was that we should not waste a genuine crisis, but we need to focus on the GRC issues at hand

Paul Grainger of Resources Compliance said that many companies and organizations have been rethinking their business models. Since the global financial and credit crunch erupted almost five years ago the focus on Compliance has increased dramatically. However, many companies are now stepping up their GRC efforts to implementing a new wave combining the efforts to improve their return on equity ratios and profitability.

Paul Grainger and all other speakers received an antique book for their efforts. These books ranged from one of the first editions of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith from 1778 to a complete set of The Economist from 1843.

Marcel Starink, Senior Vice President Sales EMEA, BWise, spoke on the issue of how to embark on The GRC Journey - How to develop An Integrated Approach Towards Governance, Audit, Risk and Compliance. He said that Companies and organisations need a comprehensive GRC overhaul to improve profitability against the backdrop of tough new rules, compliance and a gloomy economy.

General Secretary of The Nordic CPA Association Jens Røder said that the new regulations require Companies and organisations to hold more capital. Coping with the deepening euro zone debt crisis is one of the reasons. He provided the participants with different alternatives of Governance, Risk and Compliance disclosures in the company's annual report.

Jens added that GRC implementations also impose a new culture and identity, as it brings together the components of capital, liquidity, funding, processes, legal framework and related policy issues, will determine the results that are reflected on the company's balance sheet.

Lady Olga presented Jens Røder with one of the oldest accounting books from 1765, which in the context that the earliest accounting records, date back more than 7,000 years, (found in Mesopotamia/Assyrians) is not that old.

Co-Chair Mariano A. Davies presented Hege Sjo with a book that corresponded to her views that proper GRC implementations, will help struggling companies, and organisations to attract investors to provide the necessary capital. Besides being a member of the board of 4 norwegian stocklisted companies, Hege Sjo is responsible for the Scandinavian desk at Hermes Investment advisors in London.

The speaker who received most questions and comments for her 2 Key Notes on Governance and Compliance issues in China and Asia was Luka Lu. Luka brought in her presentation fascinating case studies from her extensive experience as an international corporate lawyer. Her advice was embedded in the experiences she gave to the participants. The comments are that her approach will undoubtedly be helpful with to the participants. Her presentation focused on practical rather than technical issues. The participants also benefited in looking at the GRC perspectives outside Europe as most of the companies attending the Copenhagen Compliance Conference were global in their reach. This year's conference was focused on China and Japan and future conferences will continue to have a forum devoted to regional experience, ie. Africa, Asia, Latin America, Middle East etc.

After a set of 4 speakers, there was always a panel discussion to respond to the questions and clarifications from the participants. Some of the responses were:

• Females are no less susceptible to corruption than males.
• Boards are full of clones- from a similar profession and mind set
• Have shifted from oligopoly to meritocracy
• Tools differentiate humans from other mammals
• Responsibility cannot be enforced must be felt

Frank Hailstones has conducted more than 500 GRC workshops. He detailed how GRC processes need to be embedded into business processes

• Observe policy and procedures
• Improve workflow
• Meet compliance
• Achieve objectives and performance
• The need to get GRC into the budget process
• Need for escape processes
• Change management and relationships

Prof. Caspar Rose of the Copenhagen Business School explained why the economy and companies have taken the proper hit. With all the latest regulation, risk-based adjusted return on capital, Good Governance issues will be reflected in the prices that companies have to pay, unless risk management with all its components is implemented correctly.

Prof. Rose spoke on liquidity risk management, additional compliance burdens, incentive based reporting structures, activity and risk management in the Financial Services Sector.

Thomas Bøgballe has risk management experience both from Novo Nordisk and Carlsberg. He said that cutting costs, improving risk management, taking advantage of technological changes take quite some time and effort. Thomas pointed out that there are no quick fixes, and there appears little prospect of a return to bumper RoE levels seen in the decade before the current crisis unless risk management is high on the corporate agenda.

Maneck Porbunderwalla-Nielsen together with Anne Lippert, 2 students from the University of Arhus were responsible for conducting the GRC Survey during the conference. To see the results of the survey click

Jesper Jarlbæk talked about the Audit Committees. He is Professional board member and angel investor. He said that implementing audit committees is high on the board agenda; however In Denmark only one company of the C20 companies has an auditor as the head of the audit committee.

The conference participants were from the following industries: Financial Services - 20
Manufacturing - 6
Health care - 8
Consultancy, Training and Education - 17
Audit and Legal - 20
Government - 8
IT - 12
Other - 4

Gareth Garvey said during his speech on Culture and Compliance that obeying laws is cultural: cars vs. bikes vs. pedestrians (DK vs. SE)
Performance: when approved stakeholders expectations are met
Sales process: Delivery vs. Sales- status, consumption, trophy wives (built into the process)
He then elaborated on Hofestede’s views on local customs vs. globalized culture

The conference participants were in the following positions/capacity:
Board of Directors - 12.50
Senior Management - 27.50
GRC Officer - 30.00
Manager - 30.00

Anders Lykke from Eversheds focused on the reasons for failure to stop Bribery, Fraud and Corruption and the legal requirement for having adequate procedures. He said that It is easier to do things the right way, when times are tough than when implementing procedures during the good times.

Judith Canning said that Several GRC equations on bribery and corruption are still fairly unknown to the companies and organizations in spite of the added compliance requirements of FCPA and The UK Bribery Act. The primary objective of Bribery and Corruption implementations are to create a bigger safety net to protect stakeholders. The secondary goal is to improve results in spite of the fact that added control is increasing pressures and hurting economic recovery.

During the many Q&A sessions, several GRC issues were discussed, amongst them were:
Role of compliance: watchdog>custodian>strategic business partner

• The urgency to get things moving: 1) foresight, 2) something goes wrong
• Compliance is a journey, not a destination, be wise where you wander
• Boards set risk appetite. Then risks are assessed and the risks assessment drives control,
• Internal/external controls manage compliance.
• Redistribution of resources>bottom line.
• Advanced GRC allows for improving board performance.
• The pioneers of GRC were internal auditors, but management never saw it as a critical function
• Compliance is not for the sake of the stakeholders rather for corporate stability.
• Compliance is forward looking and preventative.
• Compliance functions cannot be in charge of customer service
• If compliance is everywhere to organize everything, its often nowhere and keeps an eye on nothing

Clive Coston, who is the Public Sector Governance, Risk & Compliance Specialist from Oracle informed the participants on how to add value to your Governance, Risk & Compliance strategy by supporting IT tools. He suggested that Suggested that the GRC business models need to change further. The conference has also provided ample suggestions and possibilities to achieve that.

Henrik Berthing has the unique combination of being both a Danish CPA and an IT security specialist. CGEIT, CRISC, CISA, CIA are just a few of the IT certifications he holds. He provided the participants with hands on experiences and examples on how to protect against the risks associated with groups that are either employed, associated or business partners that have access to data and systems. He provided a overview of updated controls, user access, separation of system infrastructure, limits and restrictions and proactive system monitoring and how to track periodic risk assessments of information security programs

Henrik Granau recommended a total, integrated Credential Management solution that provides strong protection for Access Control to both Physical and Logical systems. 'Mobility' is providing productivity improvement but is also introducing new security threats.

He provided solutions on how to ensure that we can carry on thrusting the identity of users, who are getting access to the organisations resources.

Andrew Moore, Executive Vice President, Computershare Governance Services informed the participants on the Technology Trends in Global Governance. He came across at gathering, reporting and analysing the corporate data and how companies can communicate this information internally, with Third Party Service Providers, and to their Board of Directors.

Andrew talked about the Tech trends in IT, Total entity management>legal entities.

Andrew said that the brand is only as reliable as the lowest entity. Who is looking after the assets?
Line of liability: You can get sued at the bottom, and the penalties can reach the money at the top. Fraud Triangle: pressure, opportunity, rationalization. People should not have responsibilities- roles and functions should. That is why 85% of all fraud is committed by senior management and the panacea of control=fraud.