Articles | Compliance Week – Page 281
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SEC Enforcement Trends to Watch in 2016
Image: A legal analysis of SEC enforcement brought in 2015, along with recent speeches given by SEC enforcement staff, provide a pretty clear roadmap of where the enforcement staff will continue to focus its top priorities in 2016. “Making sure you are addressing those issues in your compliance programs is ...
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The ‘Shalt Nots’ of GRC Implementations
There is no shortage of vendors and products in the governance, risk, and compliance software space. Choosing the wrong one can be disastrous. Just as problematic, however, is pairing a poor implementation strategy with even the best of solutions. Missteps can lead to employee revolts, cost overruns, delays, and ineffective ...
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OSHA Enforcement Trends to Watch in 2016
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is raising the stakes for companies that fail to provide safe workplaces. One development affecting CCOs in the coming year would dramatically increase penalties and emphasize who qualifies as an “employer.” “Every employer should be terrified of OSHA right now,” says Valerie Butera of ...
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Is the FAST Act Really Just the JOBS Act 1.5?
Amid speculation of when, or if, Congress would get around to a JOBS Act 2.0—a sequel to a 2012 package of securities law reforms—some of those items surprisingly appeared in a new spending bill for transportation infrastructure. Tucked into the bill are a variety of requirements for the SEC regarding ...
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Lessons From the SFO’s First Deferred-Prosecution Agreement
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office struck its first-ever deferred-prosecution agreement with Standard Bank in November, giving companies some much-needed guidance on how to disclose misconduct. The SFO’s decision to use DPAs is part of a larger undertaking to put a quick end to corporate criminal cases and encourage cooperation between ...
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For Internal Audit, Is Emerging Technology More Trouble Than It’s Worth?
Image: IT audit is challenged not only by persistent talent shortages and rapid changes in technology, but also by concerns about reporting lines that raise questions about independence and the frequency of risk assessments. “Changes in security remain top of mind,” says Robert Stroud, immediate past president of ISACA and ...
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U.S. and U.K. Treasury Revisit AML Risks
Image: For the first time in 10 years in the United States—and for the first time ever in the United Kingdom—financial institutions have some much-needed insight into how these two countries intend to prioritize money laundering and terrorist financing risks, enabling compliance officers to better allocate their limited resources. “These ...
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Transparency Gaps in the Telecom Sector
Many telecom companies perform reasonably well when disclosing their anti-corruption practices, but less so concerning their organizational structures and country-by-country operations. With the potential for corruption fueled by relaxed rules and regulations, large licensing fees, major equipment contracts, the sale of state operators, and increased M&A activity, telecom companies need ...
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AML Regulations in NY Force CCOs to Rethink Everything
Earlier this month New York officials proposed new anti-money laundering regulations for financial institutions that fall under that state’s regulatory regime and supervision—which pretty much includes every major international bank in the world. Along with heightened demands for monitoring programs that detect money laundering red flags, the requirements seek to ...
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SEC’s Concerns Prod a Rethinking of Outsourced Compliance
Image: Faced with budget constraints, firms frequently turn to external professionals to supplement compliance programs—but the SEC has provided a laundry list of problems with that approach. “The SEC has not banned outsourced compliance in any way or said it is presumptively disfavored, but reading between the lines you get ...
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The Popularity, and Peril, of Structured Payable Programs
Image: Structured payable programs have become increasingly popular in recent years as companies and their lenders search for new ways to access working capital. But according to Robert Rostan, CFO and principal at education firm Training The Street, such arrangements could turn short-term accounts payable into longer-term debt that requires ...
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Amid Financial Reporting Changes, SEC Offers Cautions
With changes looming on accounting standards for revenue recognition, leases, financial instruments, and more, skittish corporate accountants often turn to the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance and staff accountants, relying on phone briefings and pre-clearing consultations to get ahead of financial reporting issues before they result in an SEC comment ...
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Little to Fear in New World of Lease Accounting
Accounting for leases is about to undergo a profound change, thanks to a new standard adopted by accounting rulemakers in the United States and overseas. The new standard has its critics; in a special guest column this week, Gary Kabureck—former chief accounting officer of Xerox, now a member of the ...
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The Technology Transforming Your Annual Audit
Image: The audit profession is slowly retooling itself for the modern IT age, after decades of reliance on random sampling and manual methods that now fail to meet today’s expectations for precision. “Ultimately, this is how the industry will finally achieve its long-term goal of continuous auditing,” says Joanna Schultz ...
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Working With External Compliance Monitors
Image: So your company has just entered into a settlement with a U.S. government agency and must now install a compliance monitor. How do you respond? For many companies, working with an external compliance monitor is still an intimidating process tainted by misconceptions. “A monitorship was never designed to ...
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SEC Girds for Next Wave of Political Battles
On paper, the next several months mark the final stretch for the SEC’s implementation of Dodd-Frank Act rulemaking. In reality expect continued battles over the law, waged by both Republicans and Democrats. Recent congressional hearings gave a sense of what’s to come: stress tests for asset management funds, fights over ...
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Employee Investigations Post-Yates Memo
Image: Any company that has faced allegations of corporate misconduct knows how quickly the scope and cost of an internal investigation can grow—a concern that has only amplified following the Justice Department’s Yates Memo. “Corporate compliance professionals have expressed concern that this policy will result in companies undertaking unnecessarily broad, ...
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Companies Aren’t Waiting for SEC to Revamp Financial Disclosures
A new survey that many companies are not waiting for the SEC to complete its anticipated review of disclosure requirements; some are already taking matters into their own hands, and they have advice for others who want to get ahead of the process. “Be aggressive,” says David Cornish, deputy comptroller ...
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Cloud Security Is a Challenge for Users and Providers
As more cloud storage providers evolve from consumer-based products to enterprise-grade services, compliance challenges are evolving along with them. Before entering into a service contract, companies must determine whether their data will be safe and all is in compliance with a growing list of regulations and security frameworks. The added ...
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How to Panic Effectively With So Many Effective Dates Coming
Image: Revenue recognition, leasing, financial instruments—the accounting standards for all three have major changes looming, and that means financial reporting executives have lots of implementation to juggle in a short period. This week we look at how to manage so much change well and which companies face the most work. ...