The International Chamber of Commerce, Transparency International and the UN Global Compact developed a brief on The Business Case for Integrity (December 2025). The brief is an update of the original report, published almost 20 years ago, which urges businesses to focus on integrity and anti-corruption efforts.
Human Level’s Take:
- Even as some countries roll back integrity and anti-corruption laws, creating regulatory fragmentation and uncertainty, companies can benefit from staying the course on these issues. Human rights and anti-corruption issues are closely connected. For example, it can divert resources and impact States’ ability to protect human rights, undermine the rule of law, and reduce corporate accountability for negative human rights impacts.
- There is a clear business case for continued action, ranging from reduced operational costs and legal risks, to improved reputation and consumer trust, access to capital and insurance, increased employee retention and attraction, and more.
- When companies collectively uphold principles of integrity, they can create a more level playing field, strengthen public trust in business and ensure transparent, open markets.
- The brief highlights a few actions companies can take to strengthen their practices. For one, they can deploy AI technology to detect abnormalities and suspicious behaviour that may signal corruption. They can also use AI to improve the responsiveness, analysis and reporting of whistleblowing mechanisms.
- In addition, companies can look to collective efforts with peers operating in the same places, joining multistakeholder initiatives and localised coalitions and working groups. Collective action can be effective to reduce systemic corruption.
Some key takeaways:
- Corruption risks are shifting: As the global operating context has evolved and geopolitical tensions have scaled, anti-corruption regulation has also become more fragmented, complex and unpredictable for companies. As some countries strengthen anti-corruption measures, others are rolling them back or applying them inconsistently. As a result, companies increasingly run the risk of heightened costs of compliance with contradictory regulations. They also risk regulatory non-compliance and the costs associated with non-compliance, exposure to public scrutiny for their actions, and legal risk, among others. The fragmented regulatory landscape can be further complicated by other factors that increase uncertainty and unpredictability, like trade policies and supply chain shifts. Amidst this context, the brief emphasises that companies should stay the course on transparency, integrity and anti-corruption efforts.
- The business case for integrity: The brief highlights a number of benefits for companies in ensuring business integrity. For example, it can reduce operational costs and legal risks, and create a competitive advantage by building a strong reputation for integrity. It can also support access to capital and insurance, ensure crisis resilience and long-term value creation, and help companies attract and retain highly skilled talent. When companies collectively commit to and display integrity, it can build public trust in the private sector, level the playing field for businesses, create opportunities for companies to shape regulations, and build trust in governmental business and public contracts. It can also shore up company responsibilities on human rights and sustainability, which are increasingly understood to be closely linked to business integrity. By contrast, there are significant risks of inaction. For instance, companies may risk exposure to fines, sanctions and lost contracts. Inaction can also cause reputational damage, loss of consumer trust, reduced competitiveness in some markets, and lower employee morale and higher turnover. It can also deter investors and insurers and leave companies more vulnerable to geopolitical instability and regulatory changes. Broadly, inaction can result in distorted, unfair markets, systemic corruption, and the proliferation of laws and regulations that do not align with business realities.
- What can companies do to strengthen integrity?: The brief points to several actions that companies can take to strengthen their practices. For one, artificial intelligence can play a role in improving integrity, for example by implementing risk-based transaction monitoring that picks up suspicious activities and anomalies, or using AI analytics to increase the responsiveness and tracking capabilities of whistleblowing mechanisms and internal investigations. However, the brief cautions that safeguards around AI use are needed, like robust governance, fairness and transparency in model design and decision-making, independent audits and protection of personal data. Another action area for companies is collective action with peers, for example through global anti-corruption initiatives and localised coalitions and working groups. Collectively, businesses can build leverage to influence system-wide integrity challenges like abuse of power, bribes and facilitation payments, coercive practices by criminal organisations, and uneven access to information like corporate transparency, beneficial ownership and public records.
