Global Compliance
The Board of Directors, management, employees and shareholders of Philippine National Bank (PNB), and all its domestic and foreign subsidiaries and affiliates, believe that sound and effective compliance regime is the cornerstone of PNB’s strength and market presence, backed by over a century of stability and excellence. PNB adheres to the values of integrity, ethics, and good governance in the conduct of its business and affairs, exercising prudence in arriving at decisions, enforcing internal discipline and a system of checks and balances in its operating processes, and upholding transparency and accountability to its various stakeholders, including customers, investors, stockholders, and regulators.
The Bank is committed to a compliance enterprise framework guided by the principle that:
The Global Compliance Group (GCG), the compliance function of PNB, is vested with the role of designing this Compliance Program and ensuring its effective implementation towards the timely identification and mitigation of risks that may erode the franchise value of PNB, such as risks of legal or regulatory sanctions, material financial loss, or loss to reputation as a result of its failure to comply with laws, rules, related self-regulatory organization standards, and codes of conduct applicable to PNB’s operations. Compliance risk management, therefore, is an integral part of the culture and risk governance framework of PNB. In this respect, compliance shall be the responsibility and shared accountability of all employees, management and the Board of Directors.
The Compliance Program sets out the planned activities of the GCG. This program serves as the authoritative codification of GCG’s powers, mandate, authority, and formal status within the organization. The program likewise fosters adherence to banking laws, rules and regulations and is ultimately aimed to promote the safety and soundness of PNB’s operations.
Furthermore, this program provides guidance for employees on prudent compliance risk management practices. Generally, these guidelines are principles-based and are not prescriptive. Hence, employees are expected to exercise judgment in evaluating whether heightened standards should be adopted, taking into consideration the nature and complexity of the particular area of responsibility.
The Compliance Program is anchored on two basic principles:
1. Compliance is the responsibility of each line manager and is subject to review by management. Each business and support unit, branch, subsidiary and affiliate of PNB shall observe the provisions of this Compliance Program, in order to arrive at a reasonable assurance that their businesses comply with the bank’s ethical standards, laws and regulations of various regulatory agencies where it operates.
2. Each employee is also responsible, as an individual, to be familiar with the rules and regulations and ethical corporate standards related to his assignment, and to fulfil his responsibilities as set forth in his job description. Supervisors must provide appropriate level of compliance awareness and training to their employees in matters affecting their official assignments.