In order to provide an overview for busy in-house counsel and compliance professionals, we summarize below some of the most important international anti-corruption developments in the past month, with links to primary resources. For our first installment of 2016, we ask: Which countries fared the best and worst in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index? Which OECD member country was the latest to issue guidance on effective compliance programs? What penalties did individuals and companies convicted of antibribery offenses in the United States, Brazil, and the UK receive? The answers to these questions and more are here in our January 2016 Top Ten list:

1. Transparency International Releases Annual Corruption Perceptions Index. On January 27, 2016, Transparency International (TI) released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The CPI, which measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 168 countries, provides one of the major data-points used by compliance officers, outside counsel, and enforcement officials in assessing the anticorruption risk of doing business in particular countries. Denmark came out on top as being perceived as the least corrupt country, while North Korea and Somalia tied for last place. Brazil saw one of the largest falls in rankings (from 69 to 76), likely because of revelations that have surfaced during the ongoing investigation into corruption related to state-oil company Petroleo Brasiliero SA (Petrobras). According to TI, more countries improved their scores in 2015 than experienced a decrease. However, two-thirds of all countries still scored below 50—the mid-point between “perceived to be highly corrupt” (0) and “perceived to be very clean” (100). TI considers scores below 50 to indicate that a country has a “serious corruption problem.”