The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA, the Act) is a United States law that prohibits U.S. firms and individuals from paying bribes to foreign officials to further business deals. The FCPA contains two main articles:

The anti-bribery provisions

The books, records, and internal control provisions, which speaks to accounting practices

The FCPA applies to prohibited conduct anywhere in the world and extends to both U.S. publicly traded companies and privately held companies.