TRACE, a global provider of innovative anti-bribery due diligence and compliance solutions, announced the official launch on Sept. 11 of its new marketing and supply chain due diligence platform, TRAC (TRACE Registered Access Code).

TRAC, a free global online due diligence platform for supply and marketing chain compliance developed by TRACE, is designed to improve overall transparency and efficiency between companies and their intermediaries and other third-party entities. Previously, companies would receive dozens of due diligence forms with each one requesting nearly identical information, and they'd have to complete each form individually. Now, companies can "complete their due diligence once, maintain it online, keep it up-to-date, and make it available to as many companies as they choose," says TRACE President Alexandra Wrage.

“For multinational companies, it's a quick, inexpensive heavily benchmarked base-line with continuous screening against hundreds of international watch lists and an automatic notification process whenever there is change in status," Wrage adds. "For their business partners, it's a time-saving business and compliance credential that sets them apart from less transparent alternatives.”

TRAC captures, assesses, and shares baseline due diligence information on organizations and individuals and issues universal ID numbers to approved applicants. A TRAC 12-digit code quickly and cost-effectively establishes a TRAC holder's identity, address, information, and screens the TRAC holder's name against international watch lists. "TRAC is entirely free for companies to access," says Wrage.“This is a public tool, and we're committed to keeping it that way.” To substantiate the information associated with their code and their profile on the TRAC web portal, TRAC holders can upload key documents at a cost of $80 per year.

With a secure IT wall in place, competitors cannot see who your company is linked to. In addition, TRACE worked with banks to identify state-of-the-art fraud protection tools. "All companies listed at the same address, and all companies with overlapping ownership, are automatically connected in the system," says Wrage. "This makes it much more difficult for companies to play that that shell game of reincorporating under a new name to hide past wrongdoing.”

TRAC Leadership Group

An invitation-only TRAC Leadership Group will actively participate in shaping and promoting the tool globally.   Companies have been selected not only for their commitment to innovation and compliance, but also to represent a cross-section of regions and industries. 

Initial members include ABB, Adobe, American Airlines, Barrick Gold, Home Depot and International Relief and Development. Each of them is integrating TRAC into their worldwide operations and encouraging their third parties to obtain TRAC numbers. TRAC Leadership members will participate in on-going benchmarking research with respect to lessons learned, system experience and integration into corporate social responsibility efforts.

Notably, many multinational companies are both a vendor and a customer, providing and receiving services, says Mike Ward, Associate General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Adobe Systems. So the TRAC platform consequently will reduce the costs of all parties involved in due diligence, he says.

"Anti-corruption has long led the list of reasons and motives to adopt a due diligence program, but increasingly we're seeing additional risks and additional hazards that need to be scrutinized by multinational companies," adds Ward. These hazards include new and emerging cross-border government regulations, including import and export laws, conflict minerals reporting requirements, anti-money laundering laws, and forced labor trafficking laws. “The TRAC tool allows us to capture information about all of those hazards as they related to our business partners without having to recreate those investments," he says.

TRAC is available to the public through the web portal here and is currently available in seven languages.