WG Third Party Risk Management & Sustainability
Working Group “Third Party Risk Management & Sustainability” (formerly: “Third Party Risk Management & ESG”)
Amid a lot of volatility and uncertainty, sustainability and ESG are terms on everyone’s lips, given the avalanche of regulations that are being enacted, changed, retracted and re-inforced to make companies more sustainable – or at least to make companies report on all such matters.
One currently discussed point of sustainability regulations is the inclusion of the entire value chain instead of “only” tier 1 suppliers. With that, even smaller companies who do not fall in the scope of regulations will be indirectly impacted as they will be assessed by their larger corporate customers who are in scope. Managing compliance risks related to third parties, or as our co-chair Michael prefers to call it, “external partner risk management” is top of mind for a lot of companies and consequently or the compliance community.
To respond to these developments, the Working Group “Third Party Risk Management & Sustainability ” (formerly “Third Party Risk Management & ESG”) , co-chaired by Annette Schüller and Michael Reh brings together all those interested in questions of the management of third party/external partner risk and other adjacent sustainability compliance matters to discuss, exchange and share best practice on how best to deal with these new and novel requirements.
Annette and Michael look forward to your active participation. We also welcome any speakers or ideas for future events.
8 May 2025 – Managing Third-Party Risks in Fintech: Insights and Best Practices
In a physical-only session hosted by eBay in Bern, the WG explored the evolving challenges and best practices in managing payment-related third-party risks in today’s fast-moving fintech landscape. In the first part, JB Helip, Global Head – Payment Third Party Risk & Governance at eBay Switzerland, provided key insights into emerging regulatory expectations, TPRM framework overview, uses cases & lessons learned from operating in a heavily outsourced model, with a particular focus on critical third-parties monitoring. His presentation was followed in a second part by an open exchange on the challenges of the present geopolitical situation, which continued over dinner.
13 February 2025 – Unlocking the Power of Open-Source Research: Best Practices for Third-Party Due Diligence
During an online workshop, ECS’s organizational partner Risk Advisory explored with the WG participants how best to approach conducting open-source research and details the benefits of incorporating source enquiries into an investigation. They shared best practice when undertaking open-source research, including top tips in the effective use of research tools, the benefits of gathering human intelligence, developing a sense for scope-building and research priorities, and how best to assess risks at a preliminary stage
21 November 2024 – How do European ESG and supply chain regulations impact foreign international enterprises that want to do business in Europe/Switzerland?
In snow-covered Zurich, Peter Faisst, board member of the Solar Stewardship Initiative, presented impacts of European ESG and supply chain regulations on foreign international enterprises wanting to do business in Europe/Switzerland? He described the challenges facing foreign enterprises using the example of the international solar power industry, an industry that is vital for sustainable future energy supply worldwide and that has long and complex supply chains. Mr. Faisst focussed on the difficulties of identifying and controlling large supply chains beyond tier 1 suppliers.
29 August 2024 – Launch event
Over 50 participants celebrated the launch event with us, some coming with us to the Novartis Campus in Basel, others attending remotely.
After a tour of the Novartis Campus, Stephan Geiger, Partner at EY and Head Advisory – Climate Change and Sustainability Services, Switzerland kicked the WG off with an overview of supply chain due diligence regulations existing and on the horizon (including CS3D). Thereafter Michael Reh, Global Head External Partner Risk Management at Novartis gave an introduction on how to translate the regulation into practice and how Novartis systematically manages risk related to external partner engagements.
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