Alissa Vickery, Corpay Chief Accounting Officer, discusses how companies can prepare for pending SEC regulations for ESG reporting.
In this episode of "Smarter Payments by Corpay," Brennan Robison, Director of Corporate Communications, interviews Alissa Vickery, Corpay's Chief Accounting Officer, about the company’s preparation for upcoming ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) disclosure regulations. Alissa shares insights on the growing importance of ESG reporting, especially for global companies, as the SEC and other international entities implement stricter guidelines. She emphasizes the complexity of collecting relevant data, such as emissions and diversity metrics, which need to be auditable and consistent across jurisdictions. Vickery also discusses Corpay's use of Workiva, a cloud-based tool for managing and reporting ESG data globally, ensuring accountability, accuracy, and collaboration across teams. Alissa stresses the need for companies to proactively prepare for these regulations to avoid last-minute challenges. The episode concludes with a discussion on the global push for ESG standards and how Corpay is staying ahead of the curve.
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Teaser bite by Alissa Vickery: the types of data points that the ESG standards are looking for companies to report, they aren't something you just wake up and produce. so getting in front of it, and so just trying to get a little bit more organized.
Robison intro: Companies are facing a challenge of how much data they should be collecting in anticipation of possible new disclosure rules from the Securities and Exchange Commission around E-S-G… environmental, social, and governance. Those rules meant to tell investors how socially responsible a company is. This is Brennan Robison, Director of Corporate Communications at Corpay. On this episode of Smarter Payments by Corpay, we speak with Corpay’s Chief Accounting Officer, Alissa Vickery… to have her explain the company’s journey toward addressing pending E-S-G disclosure rules. Here’s our conversation.
Robison: Hey Alissa, thanks for joining us.
Alissa Vickery: Thanks, good to be here.
Robison: So, we'll get to how you're preparing for the new ESG regulations in a moment. First, if you would tell us a little bit about your career journey that led you to be Chief Accounting Officer at Corpay.
Vickery: Sure. So, I started my career in public accounting actually here in the Atlanta market I was I worked over at Deloitte and Touche for about nine years in the external audit practice Which gave me a lot of really great background for technical accounting all things controls among other accounting and I'll call it corporate issues that companies might might experience and After a brief stopover at another one of my clients actually I found Fleetcor at the time and have been now effectively with the company in an SCC and controls capacity since IPO. So, it's been a super fun journey, got to grow with the company and ultimately promoted to Chief Accounting Officer a few years back. So, it's been fun.
Robison: And the last few years included a 10-month stretch as interim CFO, correct?
Vickery: It did indeed it did and so that it was a really interesting seat. Really appreciate the opportunity to grow professionally and personally and I'm happy to support current leadership now back in the chief accounting officer role.
Robison: And your college alma mater?
Vickery: I went to the University of Georgia. So, Go Dogs. Born and raised, or not born, but basically raised a Bulldog. Been in Atlanta since I was five years old. And so, you know, you can take the girl out of, out of the South, but you can't remove the football from her heart.
Robison: Yes. Get ready for a bad transition here. Your alma mater is a top pick to win the SEC. We're here to talk about the other SEC, the U .S. Securities and Exchange Commission. They've been pursuing new ESG reporting regulations for some time now, but you guys are getting out in front of it. What is prompting you and your team to take action now?
Vickery: So, a few things I would say. think that we have some early signals that the SEC is getting serious about regulation. They passed some initial regs around ESG reporting back in March of this year, actually, at which point it became clear that this is something we need to really start thinking about as a company, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because we are a big multinational company. And the types of data points that the ESG standards are looking for companies to report, they aren't something you just wake up and produce. So, getting in front of it, making sure that we're all speaking the same language a little bit as well. So, it's not just the SEC from a US regs perspective. It's also our friends in Europe with something called CSRD, which is an equivalent standard has quite a few data facts that are required to be collected if you're doing business in the European marketplace. The UK has something similar. My friends in Brazil have another reg that they're dealing with that's Brazilian driven, but very much akin to what we're seeing in the rest of the world. And then not to mention the states in the US like to throw their hat in the ring in terms of what they're going to require if you want to do business in say California. And California was probably a market leader in terms of saying, we're going to mandate it, whether the U S government does or not. But other States are then following suit and saying, Hey, yeah, if it matters to them, I think it matters to us too. And so just trying to get a little bit more organized.
Robison: Sure. The regs you mentioned a few months ago were environmental related. What are some other examples of the data points that the SEC is going to require large companies to report, especially large global companies?
Vickery: Right. So, the E stands for environmental, as you said. So, there are different standards out there that state how to define what your emissions are as a company. They typically fall into something called scope one, scope two, and scope three emissions. Scope one and scope two are things that are generally readily available to us. So, hey, how much electricity do your buildings use on an annual basis? And then trying to report that on a consistent metric, right? So, I want to make sure that regardless of what system of measure is used in a country that I'm actually reporting everything on a consistent unit across the globe. so figuring out how do you collect some of that data, collect it routinely, make it quality to where it can be audited because there is an assurance standard associated with many of these regs, depending upon which jurisdiction. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. So, some of it is, has to be audited immediately. Some of it is you have a two to three-year lag on that audit standard, but quite frankly, just being ready to go regardless of when the auditor is going to show up. So, just having good quality records, right? In terms of social, so that's what the S stands for. Like what are the things your company does? What do do to support the world, support your communities? What are the programs that the company employs to promote diversity within the organization? What is the percentage of minorities in leadership roles or in management roles? And then you've got G, which stands for governance. And so, governance is really around how do you manage all of this together and what mandates do we set on ourselves or where are we regulated in terms of what we have to comply with? So, it's fulsome. I think is perhaps what you just heard me say. And it has to be reported, has to be on a consistent basis, timely, and then ultimately be audited for everybody to feel good about it. And the ultimate goal is that we do it consistently throughout the globe.
Robison: And Corpay of course is a global company. What has been your method for integrating all the various reporting requirements into a comprehensive and consistent set of data?
Vickery: Right. So, I would say we're on the journey. What we've decided is that our team and the chief accounting officer's office is probably the best attuned to facilitating a product that then enables us to report consistently. today we use a tool called Workiva. And it has really been a fabulous solution for us. It's software in the cloud. It enables collaboration, regardless of where you sit, it has workflow functionality, it controls who has the pin at any one point in time. So, that even if everybody's making updates simultaneously, it understands how to refresh and manage the data, but also control who can do what. So, for instance, I don't want my controller in the UK to update the metric for Brazil. That would be inappropriate. He has no access to that data. So, why would he have access to that data field? And so what Workiva effectively enables us to do is, if you set it up right, is take the regulation, scope what the requirements are for the company. Once you've identified what is in scope and what matters. So, let's say there's 1,500 data sets, right? Or data points that could be relevant. Okay, let's go through and figure out which ones actually matter and which ones are material to us as a company. All right, now I'm down to 400, for example. Now that I've identified the 400 things that I want to collect, how do I then go and facilitate the collection of those data points throughout the globe? All right, now I'm going to take those data points and take it from the most robust standard that exists. And I'm going to start mapping the regulation requirement for California, for Europe, for the SEC into each of those data points. That then enables me to effectively pivot off of that data, similar to how you would in an Excel workbook or in a cube in a data lake environment to where I can actually produce a report if I've tagged that data properly and linked it properly to my actual output so that then I can then report on it. And once I can report on it, it can be audited. And so it's creating ownership, accountability, workflow, repository of the support for each of those data points. Because remember, if I need to query 13 different controller sets around the globe to give me data points on 30 lines of business or 300 products. So, at what level do you actually want to aggregate? What level is the data relevant creating the ownership so that support is reposed? It's not just entered as a key to number, but I've got actual file to support the number that's been entered that then enables I'll call it a cradle to grave, auditable output report. and so what we viewed is our team is very. A kin and robust in its understanding of what the rules are, how to build the reporting and work Kiva, and then ultimately delivering the product so that it can be used. Once we deliver the product, it will then become part of the monthly closing process through our corporate controllers to then help create. I'll call it the accountability for the monthly reporting. Once you have it monthly, you can aggregate it to the year and voila, you have an out. So, getting in front, yes.
Robison: That sounds daunting, but highly organized on your part. You mentioned Europe being ahead of the SEC, the state of California as well. What kind of a head start is that giving you in terms of being already prepared for those requirements before the broader SEC requirements come out?
Vickery: Right. So, from our analysis, it does seem like the first reporting requirement will be in the first quarter of 2026, which gives us a little bit of room. It means that in 2026, you're required to report on 2025 outputs, the E and the S and the G. And so that means I need to get done with an implementation sooner rather than later so that we can start with the data collection phase. Ideally, by January of 2025 so that we're able to start the ball rolling. But we also know that there'll be a learning curve here. So, there'll be some training associated with what does good look like? What does the data need to have to support it properly? And quite frankly, just educating the business on what the requirements are so that they understand the importance of it. Everybody has it in the back of their head. And I think what the regulators are doing is they're forcing it to the forefront. to where, you know, we're, going to be in the same boat as all other companies. So, we better get ready.
Robison: And are you comfortable with where you are in terms of checking off the milestones along the way?
Vickery: we're sprinting. I'm comfortable with where we are right now. We have a couple of big decisions here coming up in terms of implementation partners. And then once we've selected and we actually have our scheduled team to implement our solution, I'll feel much better.
Robison: We obviously have a lot of folks involved in this process. Can you speak to the importance of collaboration, communication, teamwork? How important is that to making all this come out well?
Vickery: Yeah, I think it's going to be hyper critical. it's one thing to implement a tool. It's another, it's another ball game to identify what's actually relevant and matters to the business. And so, having buy -in from our controllers, from our business operators, from legal, from our compliance teams, as well as our, our, our accounting crews. because sometimes the facilities doesn't live within accounting, right? It'll, it'll live somewhere else in the business. So, making sure that there's broad understanding and hyper awareness of if you say something is in scope, we must go collect and making sure that that collection point is relevant and accurate is going to be hyper important. so collaboration is going to be probably the most important thing we do as we go through the scoping exercise, which happens simultaneous with implementation. So, quite an undertaking ahead of us.
Robison: Certainly. You mentioned that Corpay is going to be in the same boat as everybody else. Do you have a sense of where other multinational companies are in their journey? Are they being as proactive as you are?
Vickery: I think it depends. If the company operates from a lens of as a manufacturer or manufacturing reliant, those companies are ahead of us at a necessity because of the number of inputs that will be required. Think about the number of third parties that it requires to create components that then build a vehicle for GM. So, that's just one microcosm of the number of inputs that would be required to get their data to be complete and accurate. For us as a non -manufacturer, think for tech companies, we're probably right where most are. Figuring it out, selecting partners, moving forward. It's one of those where it is a lot of work. And so you don't want to do the work before the regulation exists. And the regulators have been slower in some markets than others. And then figuring out how do you make the effort as aligned and harmonious as possible, given the number of regs that you must comply with. And so just trying to make that so you don't end up with being too far ahead of the game or too much throwaway work, quite frankly. And so just being as efficient as possible with our time and treasure.
Robison: So, the SEC is an independent agency, but the president appoints the five commissioners serving staggered five -year terms. Do you see any implications for the expected regulations depending on the outcome of the November election?
Vickery: It's a great question. I don't have a crystal ball. So, I can say with certainty that I don't know exactly what will happen, either who will win or what the outcomes in relation to ESG will be. I do know that the SEC takes this reporting very seriously and it's been on its agenda for some time now. And so if you believe that that importance exists, regardless of who's in office, then ultimately we will be reporting on this.
Robison: Safe to say if and when the SEC does pass these regulations, Corpay will be ready. Before we close, what suggestion would you offer to peers at other companies who are addressing these same issues?
Vickery: Yeah, I mean, I would say, I hope you're getting organized. I hope that you're starting to think through how you'll go collect data. I think depending upon the size of the organization, the relevance of those two pieces of advice vary. But I think when you have multiple offices in multiple countries with quite frankly, hundreds of facilities, being quite thoughtful about how you'll go about collecting that data and who you'll work with and how do you ensure that everyone's aligned on the why and then what the work is, is imperative. so getting in front of it is, there's certainly value to that. what you don't want to be done, what you don't want to happen is be caught on your heels with an auditor requesting the information and we haven't even collected it. Right. And so it's. It's time to get going.
Robison: It is time to get going. We appreciate your time that you've spent with us on this important topic. Alissa Vickery, Chief Accounting Officer at Corpay. Thanks, Alissa.
Vickery: Thanks, Brennan.
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Robison outro: That's it for this episode of Smarter Payments. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow the show wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode. Smarter Payments is a production of Corpay Incorporated, copyright 2024. I'm Brennan Robison. And we'll see you next time.