All articles by Joe Mont – Page 73
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Blog
SEC Details Its Criteria for ‘Bad Actor’ Waivers
Amid a fierce debate among commissioners, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance has issued guidance on how and when waivers will be granted for companies that face disqualification from registration exemptions when raising capital. Determinations will include whether the misconduct was isolated, company leadership was involved, and training and remediation ...
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Blog
SEC Disclosure Crackdown Turns to Beneficial Ownership Reports
With another enforcement sweep made possible by its ongoing data dive into corporate filings, the Securities and Exchange Commission has fined several officers, directors, and major shareholders in companies for failing to update their stock ownership disclosures. The charges relate to the failure to file Schedule 13D, commonly known as ...
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Blog
SEC Chairman Weighs in on Waiver Dispute
Image: For more than a year, the SEC has been divided over the use of waivers that allow firms to engage in capital-raising activities despite an enforcement action. For the first time, SEC Chairman Mary Jo White has entered the fray. Waivers should not be wielded as an enforcement tool, ...
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Podcast
Podcast: Corporate Claims Complicate Cuban Trade
Amid the continuing buzz about President Barack Obama’s call to ease sanctions against Cuba, a question that remains unanswered is what to do about the complex legal issue of corporate and individual claims to property that was seized by the Castro regime. Will companies that suffered a losses decades be ...
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Article
Post-Investigation Follow-Up and Discipline at 3M
Image: What role should compliance officers have in investigations and discipline? How can they maintain independence during an investigation and subsequent sanctions decisions, while developing an effective strategy for what happens next? We talked to Jim Zappa, chief compliance officer at 3M Corp. about his approach. Zappa will be among ...
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Blog
Supreme Court Empowers Use of Interpretive Rules
Regulators now have greater freedom to interpret established rules without undergoing a public comment process thanks to a decision handed down by the Supreme Court on Monday. With a 9-0 vote, justices agreed that regulatory clarifications and alterations, made through the use of interpretive rules, are not subject to the ...
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Article
NY Regulators Pose New Challenges to Compliance Officers
Image: The state of New York is muscling its way into financial regulation, with regulator Benjamin Lawsky proposing moves in anti-money laundering compliance far more bold than anything the feds are doing. Inside is a look at what the Empire State wants to achieve, and the potentially severe liability CCOs ...
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Blog
OSHA Gives Whistleblowers More Time to Report Retaliation
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a final rule that clarifies its procedures for handling whistleblower retaliation complaints. It gives aggrieved employees an extra 90 days to file allegations and allows those complaints to be made orally, not just in writing.
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Blog
Big Banks All Pass First Round of Stress Tests
It was report card day at the Federal Reserve. On Wednesday, it released the first round of this year’s stress test results for the nation’s 31 largest banks. For the first time since it began mandatory stress tests in 2009, all banks with $50 billion or more in total consolidated ...
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Blog
Trade Groups Tell SEC: Reverse Course on No-Action Policy
A coalition of 17 business groups is asking the SEC to reinstate its practice of giving guidance about shareholder proposals that conflict with other proposals sponsored by management—and hinted that the agency’s new policy of silence on the subject may violate the law. The complaint is the latest salvo in ...
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Blog
SEC Nixes Proposed Deadline for Extractive Payments Rule
The deadline demanded by Oxfam America for a final rule requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments is “unachievable,” the SEC said in a recent legal brief. The brief is the Commission’s final word in a lawsuit Oxfam America filed in 2014 over delays ...
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Article
Lessons From HSBC’s Size, Compliance Struggles
For nearly three years, HSBC Holdings, a grande dame of international banking, has come under fire for a litany of regulatory problems and compliance failures: money laundering, sanctions, violations, and abetting tax evasion to name just a few. How does a good bank fall into such dire straits? The problem, ...
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Article
Internal Controls, Audit Committees Primed for SEC Scrutiny
Every February SEC officials convene at the Practising Law Institute’s “SEC Speaks” conference, where commissioners can break news and staff can detail priorities for the New Year. The focus this year, from rulemaking to enforcement, was on financial reporting internal controls, and ways to improve audit committees. And, of course, ...
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Blog
Human Trafficking Rules Now in Effect for Government Contractors
On March 2, new reporting requirements related to human trafficking went into effect for nearly 300,000 government contractors. Those performing work exceeding $500,000 outside the United States must develop and maintain a trafficking compliance plan and certify that, to the best of their knowledge, neither they nor any sub-contractors engage ...
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Blog
SEC Pushes Approval of Tick Size Experiment to May
Anxious for the SEC to begin its 12-month experiment in altering tick-size requirements? Prepare to wait a bit longer. The Commission has extended its deadline for approving a proposal, to allow some stocks to trade in five-cent increments, from March 7 to May 6. Meanwhile, there is pressure on the ...
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Article
When Enterprise Legal Management and GRC Collide
Software vendors offer a range of products known as “enterprise legal management” to help the legal department analyze spending, discern patterns, and manage costs. Given that many legal costs are the result of some governance or compliance risk, is there an opportunity to use enterprise legal data to improve your ...
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Article
An Insider Look at the EU’s Binding Corporate Rules
Companies that move data throughout Europe, or beyond its borders, face a long and exacting list of privacy and security demands. Some companies are choosing to take advantage of Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs), presenting their data compliance framework for approval by data protection authorities. BCRs, despite a lengthy approval process, ...
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Blog
New Guidance on SEC Waivers, Exemptions in the Works
Companies seeking waivers that allow them to retain exemptive relief despite an enforcement action may soon get fresh guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission on how that increasingly contentious process will work in the future. Speaking at a conference in Washington D.C., Elizabeth Murphy, an associate director for ...
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Blog
SEC Commissioners Vent on Administrative Proceedings, Disclosures
Speaking recently at the Practicing Law Foundation’s “SEC Speaks” forum, various SEC commissioners detailed their priorities for 2015. Hot topics included the Commission’s reliance on in-house administrative proceedings, a disclosure regime that hasn’t kept pace with technological advancements, and the challenge of creating a more diverse workforce at the Commission.
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Blog
Who Is the Most Systemic of Them All? JP Morgan
Which large U.S. bank would cause the most collateral damage if it were to fail? JP Morgan, according to a new report from the Treasury Department. The report tried to quantify just how much systemic risk exists in banks designated as “Systemically Important Financial Institutions,” and JP Morgan topped the ...