Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday that it has created a new global position to oversee compliance with a U.S. law that forbids bribes to foreign officials as it grapples with a bribery scandal that has led to more than $10 billion being cut from its market value.

The creation of a new Global FCPA Compliance Officer post is one of the steps the company has taken in the past year to manage issues of bribery when they arise, spokesman David Tovar said in a statement. FCPA refers to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1970s U.S. law.

Tovar declined to say when the post was created, if it had been filled or who was named to fill the post.

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that a senior Wal-Mart lawyer received an email from a former executive at Wal-Mart de Mexico in September 2005 that described how the Mexican affiliate, known as Walmex, had paid bribes to obtain permits to build stores in the country.

According to the Times, Wal-Mart sent investigators to Mexico City and found a paper trail of suspect payments totaling more than $24 million. But the company's leaders shut down the probe and did not notify U.S. or Mexican law enforcement officials until after the newspaper had informed Wal-Mart that it was looking into the issue, the Times reported.

Wal-Mart said that global compliance officer will oversee five FCPA directors in international markets. The company has also set up a dedicated FCPA compliance director in Mexico who reports to the global compliance director.

Wal-Mart shares were down $1.41, or 2.4 percent, at $58.13 on Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. That follows a 4.7 percent drop on Monday that more than erased the stock's gains for the year.

(Reporting By Brad Dorfman; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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