Business ethics and integrity

In 2019, VAG partnered with the renowned international law firm Baker McKenzie to replace the previous compliance setup by a comprehensive Compliance Management System (CMS), tailored to the risk exposure of VAG Group. With a view to international standards and guidelines (e. g. German law, U.S. FCPA, UK Bribery Act, ISO 37001), VAG Group updated its existing policies and procedures in the areas of anti-corruption (including third party due diligence), anti-trust, anti-money laundering, data-privacy, conflicts of interest and whistleblowing. At the same time, VAG improved its Governance structure in conjunction with the adaptation of its CMS. As a part of Compliance Management System (CMS) a Local Compliance Committee was established in all entities and regularly updates of important topics in that regard were established.  

In parallel, a professional, state-of-the-art solution for trade compliance was established including close monitoring of world-wide sanction regimes for all our operating entities.

The VAG Code of Conduct contains general guidelines for our business ethics at VAG.

ESG management

VAG's ESG management is our way how to systematically drive our ESG agenda forward over the next years. Most relevant elements are defining clear targets, driving their implementation with passion, and controlling success of those initiatives.

Supported by Group, this is broken down in our operational entities and reported to the Group Management monthly. ESG was made a part of the local compliance committees which were consequently renamed to local integrity committees (LIC). We are convinced that this way of thorough management will enable us to continue raising the bar further for our ESG agenda going forward.