Articles | Compliance Week – Page 289
-
Article
Is CSR Part of the Compliance Operation?
Corporate social responsibility is now big business in Europe. How the compliance function intersects with CSR, however—and what role the compliance officer should play in CSR oversight—is still unclear. In the final part of our series on CSR, we look at how several European companies are trying to embed CSR ...
-
Article
Dodd-Frank Reform: The Beat Goes On
The Dodd-Frank Act may be turning five years old this summer. Fights about Dodd-Frank, on the other hand, feel like they’ve been going on forever. Washington was back at it again last week, proposing various fixes, reforms, and exemptions to all manner of Dodd-Frank, much of it to help large-ish ...
-
Article
Hurry-Up Offense on Employee Surveillance
Image: Surveillance of employee activity is nothing new in the financial services sector, but the financial crisis, the LIBOR scandal, and other misconduct are driving new demands for smarter, better surveillance. Inside, we look at some of the IT challenges to extracting better intelligence from your data. The goal is ...
-
Article
Compliance Trends in 2015: More Authority, More IT Uncertainty
Good news for compliance officers in existential crisis: A majority of CCOs are now part of the senior management teams at their businesses, and they have more authority than ever before. Those are two among many findings of the 2015 Compliance Trends Report, the annual survey of compliance leaders conducted ...
-
Article
Doing God’s Work: Compliance Reform at the Vatican Bank
Image: The Istituto per le Opere di Religione, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, suffered for decades from poor internal controls and conduct. How has the Holy See tried to recover? Slowly, surely, and with a risk-based approach following international standards. “The expectations are huge in building trust and confidence, ...
-
Article
PCAOB to Audit Committees: Help Us Help You
Image: The PCAOB’s latest guidance to audit committees will help them understand how to push their audit firms to dig deeper into risk. It may also, however, nudge audit committees to undertake risk and audit oversight the PCAOB itself cannot do. “In places like China, the PCAOB cannot inspect, but ...
-
Article
IIA to Push More Flexible Internal Audit Planning
Image: The Institute of Internal Auditors will unveil an overhaul of its professional practices framework this summer, including a push for audit executives to be more flexible in their audit planning. Whether that means a “rolling audit plan,” contingency funds for surprise risks, or other methods, many say the idea’s ...
-
Article
Brit Banking Regulators Wield Attestation More Often
Deutsche Bank paid $345 million to British regulators for its role in the LIBOR scandal, $153 million of that stemming from a false attestation the bank submitted about its internal controls. Those attestations are emerging as a potent tool for the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority. “This case sends a strong ...
-
Article
Suddenly, Washington Is Back at Cyber-Security Discussion
Image: For the first time in years, Washington is abuzz with proposed changes to cyber-security disclosure, both in Congress and at the SEC. Above all, experts say, is a need to clarify terminology and expectations. “There should be minimum standards for what that security should be across the board,” says ...
-
Article
As SEC Delays on Extractive Payments, World Moves Ahead
The SEC has fought all sides on its proposed rule to disclose payments to governments for mining rights: oil and gas companies on one hand saying the rule is flawed; activists on the other saying the rule is overdue. The trouble, however, is that while the SEC tussles in court, ...
-
Article
The Compliance Officer’s Role in Driving CSR Efforts
As corporate social responsibility becomes a business norm across Europe, two questions for compliance officers are what role they should play, and how they can leverage a vibrant CSR effort to enhance corporate culture and values. In part two of our look at CSR programs, this week we explore how ...
-
Article
Anti-Corruption Compliance Improves in Defense Sector
Image: A new Transparency International report examining anti-corruption measures in the defense sector holds both good and bad news: Many defense companies have improved their ethics and anti-corruption compliance programs; plenty more still have lots to do. “It is clear that many companies in the industry are paying closer attention ...
-
Article
Throwing Books & Records at ’Em
Image: Compliance officers responsible for accurate books and records and effective internal control over financial reporting may be entering a brave new world of regulatory enforcement. The SEC is stepping up its use of administrative proceedings to impose strict liability on even relatively minor infractions of securities law. “The SEC ...
-
Article
Far East: The Epicenter of FCPA Enforcement?
Image: Everyone says bribery risk is highest along the Pacific Rim, but how acute is the problem really? Pretty bad, according to a Compliance Week review of recent FCPA enforcement actions—and the risks will only increase as more U.S. companies enter Asia and more Asian companies tap U.S. capital markets. ...
-
Article
Q&A: How E*Trade Recovered From the Financial Crisis
Image: As part of our occasional series of conversations with compliance and risk executives, we caught up with Michael Pizzi, chief risk officer at E*Trade Financial. Prior to the financial crisis, E*Trade had made sizable investments in mortgage-related assets—toxic assets whose value ultimately plummeted, resulting in substantial writedowns for the ...
-
Article
Latest Pay Disclosure: Bring on the Metrics, Break Out the Peers
Image: Compensation committees and external reporting executives should brace for impact from the SEC’s newest addition to executive compensation disclosure: pay-for-performance rules. The detailed new disclosures (tagged in XBRL, no less) will be extensive, the consequences for executive pay unknown. “How useful is this information really going to be? To ...
-
Article
Parsing the Data on Financial Restatements
Image: The data behind financial restatements tell a fairly positive tale for 2014, with improvements in financial reporting across many variables (unless you’re an accelerated filer, where restatements edged up from the prior year). Inside we have a close look at which companies restated for what reasons, and whether improvement ...
-
Article
EU Companies Face CSR Reporting Mandate in 2016
Image: This week Compliance Week starts a series on corporate sustainability, asking the most basic question of all: Will sustainability reporting ever be required? Yes, at least in the European Union. Inside we look at the state of CSR in Europe, and what role compliance officers are likely to play. ...
-
Article
The Multimillion Dollar Question: When to Self-Report?
Image: The mantra from regulators when uncovering potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is clear: self-report early and often. Still, companies might want to take a more nuanced approach to that decision, and some legal voices maintain that occasionally shareholders are best served by staying silent. “Right now, ...
-
Article
Eliminating Cyber-Threats From the IT Supply Chain
Image: The longer a global supply chain grows, the less assurance corporations have in the integrity and security of their products and operations. Now NIST is trying to pierce that fog with new guidance, and compliance officers in the private sector might want to take notice. “Cyber-supply chain risk management ...