Articles | Compliance Week – Page 290
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Navigating Global Internal Investigations Under Main Justice’s New Policy
Image: The Justice Department’s new Yates Memo, demanding much more cooperation from companies to find individual wrongdoers, will pressure companies to pressure employees during internal investigations. In Europe and elsewhere, however, the law favors employees much more than in the United States, making global investigations a tall order. “Most developed ...
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Internal Investigations Just Got a Lot More Complicated
Image: Compliance officers should brace themselves after Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates’ speech last week calling for more prosecution of individuals involved in corporate misconduct—the implications for internal investigations are huge. Inside we have the full analysis of how this policy shift, which sharply splits company and executive interests, will ...
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Despite Progress, Anti-Corruption Risks Continue
Last week KPMG released a report on anti-bribery and corruption programs that will surprise nobody: Compliance challenges are growing, and third parties are harder to manage than ever. After nearly a decade of anti-corruption awareness and compliance programs, then, the real question is: Why is anti-bribery still so hard? Inside, ...
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Lease Modifications Trigger New Headaches
Image: Beware when negotiating with your landlord: Accountants are noticing an uptick in lease modifications and are warning companies to heed the accounting and financial reporting consequences. The nuances of lease accounting are many and even trip up large retailers. That can be especially true when your lease negotiators are ...
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As Startups Grow, Many Start Needing Compliance Sooner
Once upon a time, start-up companies—whether toiling away in a garage somewhere or moving their way up in the world—rarely even considered a compliance program; that was something they would only need in the future. Now many find that the future comes mighty fast these days. Inside, a closer look ...
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Getting a Better Read on ‘Conduct Risk’
Image: “Conduct risk” is a phrase uttered by many regulators these days and a menace compliance officers in banking circles worry about more and more. Still, putting a precise definition on it isn’t easy. “Conduct risk frequently demands that a firm address the widest range of policies, processes … and ...
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Preventing an FTC Cyber-Security Action
Image: A federal appeals court has upheld the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to sanction companies for poor data security practices—which opens a new front of cyber-security compliance and legal risks for Corporate America. “Basically, if consumers trust you with data, you need to use reasonable business efforts to honor that ...
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Human Trafficking Lawsuits Expose Companies to Greater Supply Chain Risk
Image: While you were worrying about conflict minerals, class-action lawsuits over cat food and shrimp cocktail have emerged as the new compliance risk. Suits against Nestlé and Costco both claim the companies used shrimp produced using slave labor in Thailand. What’s more, plaintiffs are using required supply chain disclosures from ...
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Investment Advisers Next to Feel AML Scrutiny
Investment advisers have never had to face formal anti-money laundering requirements. That is about to change. A proposed rule by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network adds them to the definition of “financial institutions” and demands comprehensive anti-money laundering programs. That has raised concerns of cost and redundancy and ...
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New NLRB Standard Causes Compliance Joint Pains
Image: The National Labor Relations Board has startled Corporate America with its recent ruling that drastically expands the definition of a “joint employer.” Compliance officers should scramble for all those contracts your company has with staffing agencies, franchisees, and similar parties; review them closely to shed any right of control ...
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Audit Fees Are Up; What’s Interesting Is Why
Audit fees are rising—which you probably already knew—but the latest data on audit fees raises questions about what’s behind that increase. PCAOB audit firm inspections are part of it; but many big jumps in fees seem due to external events like a merger more than vigorous audits for SOX compliance, ...
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How Bad Is SEC Politicking? Pretty Bad
Image: That the SEC endures its share of politics is not exactly news—but the amount of politics, and the sheer partisan in-fighting at the agency? That’s rising. Split votes are more common, published dissents from commissioners more frequent. “Sometimes when I see what’s going on now, I’m sorry I ever ...
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ISO 20022: Tepid U.S. Embrace for New Financial Standard
Image: The push to adopt a new ISO standard for financial transactions is gaining momentum on a global scale—even as the United States continues to weigh the business case for it. “It’s important because it is seen as the standard that all new financial transactions will move to over time,” ...
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FTC Speaks on Antitrust; Leaves Many Confused
Image: The Federal Trade Commission has finally spoken (for the first time in 100 years) about how it defines the scope of its enforcement authority for anti-competitive business practices. The bad news: Its guidance is short reading and slim on specifics. The lack of detail “may have opened the floodgates ...
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Feel the Churn: Big 4 Get Squeezed on Audit Engagements
Image: The Big 4 audit firms have lost more audit clients this year than they have gained, and second-tier firms seem to be picking them up. That churn is probably due to a variety of factors, from cost to PCAOB inspection reports to ease of working relationship, but the overall ...
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Global Transparency Failures Endure, Adding Risk
Image: One of the great challenges for U.S. compliance officers as they build global programs is the basic lack of transparency into enforcement information in other countries. Two new reports give a better scope of the problem, even if the picture revealed is not terribly encouraging. “Getting access to information ...
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Don’t Let Bad Culture Short-Circuit Your Training
A compliance training program is only as effective as the corporate culture it stands upon—which means employee cynicism and fear of retaliation need to be addressed first if you ever hope your training program will matter. Inside we look at how CCOs can combat cynicism, even when it takes a ...
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More Questions, and Evidence, on Undisclosed Control Weaknesses
Image: Fresh data from the PCAOB is raising awkward questions about whether companies and audit firms really are disclosing all the weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires. PCAOB board member Jeanette Franzel presented the data in a recent speech that should prompt some soul-searching ...
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How Can Compliance Manage Chat Risks? That’s Tough
Image: As the financial sector embraces the speed and efficiency of instant messaging services, compliance officers have a new challenge: how to detect misconduct in real time, not in e-discovery after the fact. Vendors are rushing in with new products; the bad news is that regulators are looking into “chat ...
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Undermined! Court Ruling Chisels Away at Conflict Minerals Rule
Corporate America has won a bit of a reprieve (emphasis on “a bit”) in conflict minerals compliance, thanks to the Aug. 18 court decision barring the SEC from requiring companies to disclose whether they are conflict mineral-free. But the duty to analyze your supply chain remains and, thankfully, this year’s ...