Ethisphere 2025 Ethics & Compliance report: key take-aways every compliance leader should know

Ethisphere’s new “2025 Ethics & Compliance Report: Program Trends & Employee Perceptions” distills 32,000 program datapoints and 1.2 million employee responses from 98 companies into a roadmap for modern compliance teams. For charts, case studies and methodology, grab the full report here.

‍

Integrity keeps outperforming the market

Ethisphere began calculating its Ethics Premium index in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, when many questioned whether doing the right thing could coexist with delivering shareholder value. Data proves the answer is a resounding, yes!

The publicly-traded “World’s Most Ethical Companies” continue to beat a comparable global index by 7.8 % over the past five years—even through pandemic shocks and inflation spikes.

"Year after year, the results have been clear: ethical business is not a tradeoff. It's a differentiator."

‍

The benchmark is broad and deep

The report draws on 32,000 program data points from 136 organizations, plus 1.2 million employee survey responses across 58 countries. Making this one arguably the most comprehensive ethics data set in the field.  

‍

Four issues dominate 2025 agendas

• Positioning ethics & compliance as a strategic partner
• Speaking up
• Risk mitigation
• Making the business case for compliance

‍

1. Ethics & compliance as a strategic partner

• From rules to values. Mature programs are shifting from “check-the-box” controls to risk-based, values-driven systems that hold up even when regulations change or new tech (think AI) arrives.  ‍
• Seat at the strategy table. Boards and C-suites now pull E&C leaders into growth decisions because they see ethics as a safeguard and an enabler of opportunity.  ‍
• Org charts matter. Regulators signal that direct reporting to the CEO—or a dotted line to the board—sends the strongest message that integrity is non-negotiable.

2. Speaking up as your culture’s litmus test

• The silent 50 %. Half of employees who see misconduct still never report it.  ‍
• People > hotlines. Sixty percent of reports go to humans (managers, HR, E&C) rather than a web portal or phone line.  ‍
• Managers are the fulcrum. Empowering line leaders to respond consistently closes the gap between trust in the process and actually raising a hand.  

3. Moving from reactive to predictive risk mitigation

• Enterprise-wide view. 90 % of companies feed E&C risks into the broader ERM framework; 85 % still run a standalone compliance risk review to stay agile.  ‍
• E&C as risk partner. Leading programs integrate dashboards, board reporting and cross-functional task forces to spot red flags early—not after regulators do.  ‍
• Tech accelerators. Teams are piloting generative-AI chatbots for real-time policy guidance and multi-source risk dashboards that surface third-party issues faster.

4. Making the case for compliance

• Culture = 40 % ROA lift. Companies one standard deviation above the ethical-culture benchmark deliver nearly 40 % higher return on assets.  ‍
• The cost of non-compliance. U.S. firms have paid $1 trillion+ in fines since 2000; an average FCPA probe now burns $1.8 million per month.  ‍
• Directors want data. 98 % of organizations brief their boards with deep-dive E&C risk sessions and external benchmarks.  

‍

Why this matters

The industry is reaching an inflection point where ethics and compliance is being seen more as a business advantage and less as a cost of doing business. Now is the time for forward-thinking compliance teams to align along these four pillars to turn ethics & compliance into the growth enabler that Ethisphere's "Ethics Premium" data clearly shows it to be.  

For deeper data and more insights, download Ethisphere’s full 2025 report here and share these highlights with your leadership team.

‍

Interested in more curated ethics and compliance insights? Join our monthly newsletter.