All articles by Joe Mont – Page 60
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Blog
House Passes Regulation-Cutting SCRUB Act
Federal legislation that seeks to eliminate outdated and duplicative regulations was passed in the House of Representatives last week. The Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act, which awaits a Senate vote, would establish a bipartisan commission to review existing federal regulations and identify those that ...
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Blog
SEC Announces 2016 Examination Priorities
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations has released an overview of its examination priorities for 2016. New areas of focus include liquidity controls, public pension advisers, product promotion, exchange-traded funds, and variable annuities. A continuing focus will be placed on protecting investors in ongoing risk areas such as ...
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Blog
FINRA Exams Will Focus on Culture of Compliance
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is joining the chorus of regulators urging a “culture of compliance” at the financial firms it supervises. As outlined in its 2016 Regulatory and Examination Priorities Letter, it will assess whether control functions are valued within the organization, whether policy or control breaches are tolerated, ...
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Article
SEC Watch: No Respite on Regulatory Reform in 2016
If the SEC had hoped that clearing its plate of most Dodd-Frank Act and JOBS Act mandates would make 2016 a year to focus on other initiatives, well, Washington has other ideas. The agency will be busy with a new round of rulemaking thanks to the FAST Act, plus ongoing ...
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Article
Q&A: Perspective on New York’s New AML Requirements for CCOs
Image: Officials in New York have proposed a slate of new anti-money laundering regulations for financial institutions that fall under that state’s regulatory regime and supervision. It would require CCOs to submit annual certifications, with the threat of criminal liability for false or misleading statements, on the effectiveness of their ...
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Blog
CFPB Tries to Assuage Fears Over New Mortgage Disclosures
Image: Mortgage servicers, lenders, and aggregators received welcomed news from CFPB Director Richard Cordray, who wrote in a letter to the Mortgage Bankers Association that technical errors will mean non-compliance with new "Know Before You Owe" mortgage disclosure rules. Because “there inevitably will be inadvertent errors in the early days,” ...
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Blog
New OFAC Sanctions Rules Target Cyber-Attacks
The Treasury Department has implemented new rules that execute an executive order issued in April by President Barack Obama authorizing sanctions against countries and foreign nationals involved in cyber-attacks against U.S. citizens, companies, or government agencies. The rules formalize a strategy used to increase sanctions against North Korea in response ...
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Blog
SEC Seeks Comment on Transfer Agent Rules
The SEC has issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking and a concept release for new rules governing transfer agents. The Commission intends to propose new rules for transfer agents similar to those recently adopted for registered broker-dealers regarding amended annual reporting, independent audit, and notification requirements. The intent is ...
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Blog
SEC Issues Annual Reports on Credit Rating Agencies
The SEC has issued annual staff reports on credit rating agencies registered as nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs). The news in the annual report, summarizing examinations of each NRSRO as required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, is cautiously good. It shows that NRSROs have made operational improvements and have ...
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Blog
CFPB Releases Latest Data From Complaint Database
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has concluded its most recent review of complaints filed with the agency. As of Dec. 1, 2015, the CFPB handled 770,100 complaints nationally and the report notes that, in a year-to-year comparison of data from September to November, complaints about prepaid products rose 215 percent. ...
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Blog
Bill Requires Disclosure of Board’s Cyber-Security Expertise
Security experts have long pressured companies to bring cyber-security expertise onto their boards. U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced legislation known as the Cyber-security Disclosure Act of 2015 that could apply even more pressure. If passed, publicly traded companies would be required to disclose to ...
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Article
SEC’s Latest Extractive Payments Rule Still Leaves Unanswered Questions, Concerns
The Securities and Exchange Commission has once again proposed a rule requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to governments for extraction rights. And, once again, legal teams are sharpening their pencils while covered companies sweat the details. An earlier try at the Dodd-Frank Act-required rulemaking lingered ...
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Article
CFPB Critics Focus Fight on Data Collection
Fights over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are often focused on critics’ perceived lack of accountability and transparency. In recent weeks, those battles have doubled down on concerns about how the agency collects, protects, and uses data on consumers and financial institutions. CFPB foes say it is collecting more information ...
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Blog
SEC Urged Not to Abandon Political Spending Disclosures
Dozens of senators and members of Congress have sent a letter to the SEC expressing their view that the agency is still free to work on a rule requiring public companies to disclose political spending, despite a provision in the omnibus spending bill that prohibited it from using fiscal year ...
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Blog
SEC Offers a Trial Run of Crowdfunding Filings
Under new SEC rules that take effect on May 16, companies will be permitted to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. To do so, they must file the required disclosures about the offering on a new Form C. Future filers are now able to submit test filings on the new ...
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Blog
SEC Expands FAST Act Guidance
The Securities and Exchange Commission this week released another round of guidance regarding the recently enacted Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations from the Division of Corporation Finance use its standard question-and-answer format to address the filing of financial statements by emerging growth companies and requirements ...
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Blog
Podcast: PayPal on Fraud Detection, Continuous Monitoring
Image: In the latest edition of the Compliance Week podcast, we chat with Hui Wang, senior director of global risk sciences at PayPal, about security and anti-fraud efforts at the online payment processor and the company’s homegrown system for continuous risk monitoring.
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Podcast
Podcast: PayPal on Fraud Detection, Continuous Monitoring
In the latest edition of the Compliance Week podcast, we chat with Hui Wang, senior director of global risk sciences at PayPal, about security and anti-fraud efforts at the online payment processor and the company’s homegrown system for continuous risk monitoring.
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Blog
CFTC offers up cyber-security rules, margin requirements
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking to amend existing regulations regarding cyber-security testing and safeguards for the automated systems used by the firms it regulates. New rules would specify testing frequency requirements and require covered firms to have certain tests performed by independent contractors. In a separate matter, it ...
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Blog
Top Banking Risks Tallied by OCC
Strategic, underwriting, cyber-security, compliance, and interest rate risks sit atop the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s list of supervisory concerns in its Semi-annual Risk Perspective. Banks continue to face strategic challenges to growing revenues to meet target rates of return in a slow-growth, low interest rate environment, the ...