All articles by Aarti Maharaj
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Blog
Report: CEOs Already Raked in More Than the Average Employee
By the end of the first Tuesday of 2016, FTSE 100 chief executives will have earned more than the average full-time employee, said a report released by U.K. think-tank High Pay Centre. The survey said that chief executives were paid out roughly £4.96 million a year, while the average U.K. ...
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Article
Year in Review: Regulatory Enforcement in Europe
Image: For compliance officers in Europe, 2015 has been a big year. Aside from focusing on reporting wrongdoing and promoting a speak-up culture, watchdogs have been keeping compliance practitioners busy with a barrage of regulations that show no sign of easing. As compliance officers wonder to what degree the past ...
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Blog
Succession Planning: A Priority for Bank Chiefs in 2016
Standard Chartered has scored big by hiring HSBC veteran Simon Cooper to serve as the London-based company’s corporate and institutional banking head but, according to the Financial Times, Cooper’s departure from HSBC may be a sign the exec has grown impatient waiting to take over the British bank’s reigns. Cooper, ...
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Blog
New European Regulations Mean More Competition Between ‘Big Four’
New European regulations requiring companies to change auditors every 20 years have led to intense competition between the Big Four audit firms. Barclays, for instance has cut a 120-year relationship with PwC, and KPMG has been picked up as auditor for the British bank. The audit firm rotation continued at ...
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What’s Behind the High Rate of Insider Fraud?
Image: According to Kroll’s 2015 Global Fraud Report, close to three-quarters of global companies reported fraud occurences in the past year—81 percent of which were inside jobs. Is employee fear of compliance behind the numbers? “Compliance can be seen as a burden to employees because it is easy to ...
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Blog
EBA Publishes Final Remuneration Guidelines
The European Banking Authority has published its final guidelines on remuneration policies, but in doing so has postponed the pay rules in the Capital Requirements Directive until 2017 to allow firms more time to prepare for the policies. “In particular, the guidelines set out the governance process for implementing sound ...
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Blog
European Watchdog Urges Vatican to Toughen Up on Financial Crimes
The Council of Europe’s Moneyval Committee is calling on the Vatican to step up its anti-money laundering enforcement actions. Although the Vatican has finally revamped its regulations to address terrorist financing and money laundering, there’s still a lot of work needed to detect and prevent suspicious transactions, the regulator said.
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Blog
U.K. Parliament Scraps ‘Burden of Proof’ for Bankers
It’s official—bankers won’t have to worry about being held accountable for misconduct on their watch. Earlier this week, the U.K. Parliament’s Treasury Committee made a last-minute change to abandon the “burden of proof” rule for bankers. In other words, while bankers will have to fulfill their statutory duty of responsibility, ...
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Blog
Survey: Banker Bonuses Plummet in 2016
Image: Bankers should see a sharp fall in their bonuses this year in light of new regulations and increased shareholder pressure around soaring banker bonuses. According to a U.K.-based salary benchmarking website, investment banker bonuses are expected to take a 4 percent dip this year. Last month, at an academic ...
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Blog
Europe Postpones Financial Transaction Tax Deal
Eurozone nations have yet to reach a deal regarding the new controversial European financial transactions tax, but they could reach an agreement by mid-2016. The proposal received support from 10 nations—with the exception of Estonia, which cited concerns about the January 2016 implementation deadline. Industry analysts believe that even while ...
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Blog
Report: Whistleblowing Seen as “Disrespecting Authority” in Latin America
Latin America remains a hot spot for investors from every industry and markets around the world. But corruption in this region continues to run rampant and creates greater compliance risk for multinationals doing business in Latin America. According to a recent report, the top seven compliance risks for companies ...
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Blog
RBS and StanChart on BoE Stress Tests: Resiliency is key
The Bank of England (BoE) recently released the results of its latest round of stress tests, which involved seven of the biggest U.K. lenders. While some of the banks emerged from the tests relatively unscathed, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered fell below the minimum capital requirements needed to ...
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Blog
Regulator Calls on ECB to Tighten Its Rules of Engagement
Image: The European Central Bank’s transparency woes continue as Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly is urging the central bank to build a robust rules of engagement practice by putting a stop to banker meetings ahead of setting policy. O’Reilly said ECB officials should not give investors any advantage over rivals prior to ...
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Blog
Bankers Still Overpaid Despite Poor Performance
Deutsche Bank Chief Executive John Cryan said earlier this week that bonuses don’t necessarily make bankers work harder; instead some employees feel that they are entitled to an outsized incentive despite bad performance. Cryan’s message come weeks after a warning was issued at Deutsche Bank about rewarding staff with new-year ...
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Blog
Tax Evasion Problems at VW “Not Small”
German investigators have launched a new criminal probe into Volkswagen (VW) in light of the automaker’s recent emissions scandal. Prosecutors are examining five suspects who might be involved in this investigation.An Irish Times report said that prosecutors in Braunschweig are now investigating tax evasion allegations at the scandal-ridden German automaker. ...
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Blog
U.K. FCA Scrutinizes Use of Big Data by Insurers
Image: The Financial Conduct Authority is requesting more information from general insurers about big data, which may lead into a market study or further policy or guidance. Big data has the “potential to transform practices and products across financial services,” Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the FCA, ...
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Blog
Is Social Media Considered ‘Real Monitoring’?
A recent survey by Compliance Solutions at Charles Schwab found that compliance officers spend 11 hours per week monitoring their employees’ personal brokerage accounts, while half are closely monitoring social media platforms. One of the main challenges that compliance officers face is chasing data, which are “owned” by other departments. ...
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Blog
Barclays’ Cost of Conduct Woes Continue
Barclays is set to pay £65.7 million to settle allegations that it manipulated foreign exchange markets—adding to the $120 million the British bank already paid to the New York Department of Financial Services for its involvement in the Libor scandal. According to a report from the CPP Research Foundation, Barclays’ ...
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Blog
Banks May Get More Time to Prepare for Financial Market Regulation
The EU is considering delaying the release of a comprehensive regulation that will overhaul financial market rules. The delay comes amid mounting concerns that the legislation’s accompanying technologies may not be ready in time for the January 2017 start date. Due to the complexity of the rule, banks and other ...
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Blog
U.K. SFO Drops Olympus Probe: Misleading Auditors Not a Crime
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office has dropped a two-year case against Japanese endoscope maker Olympus Corp., in the wake of a London court ruling that doctoring reports to auditors is not a criminal offence under English law. The move is a setback for SFO Director David Green, who has been ...