Recap: NATIONAL COMPLIANCE CONGRESS

On December 12th, more than a hundred compliance professionals gathered at the National Compliance Congress in the Planetarium (Amsterdam Southeast) to discuss how they could transition from “complexity to reality.”

Our work, the organizations we work for, and the world around us are becoming increasingly complex. Keynote speaker Ewald Engelen began his presentation with the utopian question of whether it would not be beautiful to live in a world with fewer compliance or integrity officers. More specifically, he questioned whether the complexity of rules, especially for financial institutions, was truly necessary.

Keynote speaker Christine Swankhuijsen then shifted the perspective from the world to the organization. Christine, who has contributed to major public campaigns, demonstrated which approaches work or do not work in changing behavior and explained why. Her visual material (videos!) was very illustrative. Break-out sessions organized between the plenary sessions. Covering a wide range of topics, such as ESG, initiating the compliance function, and conducting investigations.

As the final keynote speaker, Chris Rooijakkers introduced us to her concept of “The Adequate Philosophy”, aka “don’t let yourself get worked up”. The organizer of the congress, the Dutch Compliance Institute (“NCI”), invited us to promote our association during the breaks.

Our quiz and the 2022 anniversary bundle certainly caught the participants’ attention. This congress was the first opportunity for the NCI and the VCO to collaborate concretely.