Only one in four (25%) of ethics and compliance professionals at major companies around the globe say that they plan to enhance their trade controls and training around sanctions, suggesting a gap between escalating sanctions and compliance readiness.

The data, from ethics and compliance solutions provider LRN, also found that less than half (45%) of E&C professionals say that they have strengthened risk controls related to sanctions. This is despite the war in Ukraine and rapidly escalating sanctions on a number of countries globally, including China and Russia.

The US, UK, and EU have all adopted tighter controls since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, focusing on export controls, sanctions, and money-laundering compliance, emphasising the need for multinationals to apply stringent scrutiny to their supply chains to avoid violating these regulations.

Susan Divers, senior advisor at LRN, said: “Many key economic powerhouses – including the US, UK and European Union – are clearly ratcheting up the pressure when it comes to the use of sanctions as geo-political economic deterrents. In this context, it is more important than ever that businesses clearly understand and are compliant with this vast and fast-changing landscape of regulations.

“The fact that most organisations say that they aren’t increasing their focus on ensuring compliance in this area is worrying, and represents a significant and growing area of risk for companies around the world.”

The findings were included in LRN’s program effectiveness report, based on survey responses from more than 1,860 E&C professionals at companies and organisations with at least 1,000 employees, across 26 industries and in 10 different countries.

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