Published in 2016 as a Type A management system standard (MSS), ISO 37001 specifies the requirements and provides guidance for the establishment, implementation, monitoring, maintenance, and continual improvement of an ABMS.

An ABMS based on ISO 37001 is intended to help organizations effectively prevent, detect, and respond to bribery. Other forms of corruption, such as fraud, are not covered by the standard. The requirements of the standard are generic and applicable to all organizations, regardless of their type, size, and sector (public, private, or not-for-profit). Furthermore, ISO 37001 can be used to tackle bribery by or of the organization as well as direct and indirect bribery.

ISO 37001 follows the High-Level Structure (HLS) and shares the common terminology with other management system standards developed by ISO. This means that an ABMS can either be established as a stand-alone management system, be part of an overall compliance management system based on ISO 37301, or be integrated with other management systems based on standards such as ISO 37002, ISO 9001, and ISO 45001.