All articles by Joe Mont – Page 76
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Blog
OFAC Introduces New Sanctions List Format
As part of an effort to better assist screening programs and create a global sanctions list, the Treasury Department has announced a new format for its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. The new format was developed with the United Nations and the Wolfsberg Group of International Banks and ...
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Blog
SEC Will Convert XBRL Filings Into New Public Databases
The SEC has announced the launch of a pilot program that will consolidate financial statements submitted by public companies using XBRL into databases that can be readily accessed by the public. The data sets, including financial statement data from XBRL filings, will be expanded in 2015 to include data in ...
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Blog
Oil Companies Seek to Bypass Proxy Access Proposals
In advance of 2015 annual meetings, Marathon Oil and Cabot Oil are seeking the SEC’s blessing for plans to exclude proxy access proposals submitted on behalf of New York City’s pension funds. They cite a recent decision to grant no-action relief to Whole Foods, where the grocery chain sought to ...
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Article
Maturing Conflict Minerals Programs in Year 2
Image: Now that everyone has closed their Excel files on the first year of conflict minerals compliance, companies are pushing toward greater automation in Year 2. Reducing lines of data about smelters in your supply chain is one step, improving data integrity another. “Technology can help you understand the supply ...
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Article
Companies Face New Twists in Shareholder Proposals
What the SEC giveth, the courts may taketh away—a point made clear lately by two conflicting messages for companies seeking to keep shareholder proposals off the proxy statement. At the SEC, a victory for Whole Foods suggests the agency might be more business-friendly in granting no-action letters this coming proxy ...
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Blog
SEC's EDGAR Filings Go on Christmas Hiatus
The day after Christmas has been declared a non-working day for the federal government and the SEC’s electronic filing system, EDGAR, will not be operational on that day. The system resumes operations on Monday, Dec. 29 and filings due oth the 26th can be delayed until that time.
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Blog
Podcast: Navigating the Pitfalls of Geolocation Data
Uber, Snapchat, and Golden Technologies are the latest companies to come under fire for how they use the geolocation data they collect from their customers. In this week’s podcast, we talk to Fernando Bohorquez, a partner at the law firm BakerHostetler who specializes in privacy and data security issues, about ...
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Podcast
Podcast: Navigating the Pitfalls of Geolocation Data
Uber, Snapchat, and Golden Technologies are the latest companies to come under fire for how they use the geolocation data they colect from their customers. In this week’s podcast, we talk to Fernando Bohorquez, a partner at the law firm BakerHostetler who specializes in privacy and data security issues, about ...
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Blog
JP Morgan Outlines Compliance Overhaul
JP Morgan, the Wall Street bank that has racked up more than $23 billion in regulatory fines since the financial crisis, has released a 100-page report detailing its efforts to improve compliance, culture, and internal controls. The report, “How We Do Business,” was in response to pressure from shareholder activists ...
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Blog
Former Rite Aid VP Charged in Kickback Scheme
A former Rite Aid vice president, Timothy Foster of Oregon, has been charged in connection with a $14.6 million, surplus inventory sales/kickback scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As the company’s vice president for quality assurance, Foster’s took advantage of his oversight of surplus inventory liquidation to benefit himself ...
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Blog
Fed Extends Deadlines for Volcker Rule Compliance
The Federal Reserve Board is giving financial insitutions more time to comply with the Volcker rule’s demand that they extricate themselves from investments in hedge funds and private equity funds and wind down speculative positions held on their own behalf, rather than for clients. Banks will until 2017 to unwind ...
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Blog
Desite Protestations, MetLife Deemed Systemically Important
To the surprise of no one, including the company itself, the Financial Stability Oversight Council has designated Metlife, the nation’s largest insurance company, as a Systemically Important Financial Institution, subjecting it to new regulatory, disclosure, and capital demands. MetLife has 30 days to decide whether to ask a federal judge ...
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Blog
Former MoneyGram CCO Fined $1 Million
Image: MoneyGram International’s former chief compliance officer, Thomas Haider, has been fined $1 million by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for failing to ensure that his company abided by the anti-money laundering provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act. Concurrently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of ...
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Blog
OECD Has ‘Grave Concerns’ with Argentina’s Anti-Bribery Efforts
A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Working Group on Bribery says it has "grave concerns" about Argentina’s commitment to fight foreign bribery. Argentina has no law to punish companies for foreign bribery or prosecute individuals who commit the crime abroad, the report says. Delays plague economic ...
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Blog
Avon Pays $135 Million To Resolve FCPA Charges
Image: The SEC has charged Avon with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations by failing to prevent payments and gifts to Chinese government officials from employees at a subsidiary, resulting in a $135 million penalty. “Avon missed an opportunity to correct potential FCPA problems at its subsidiary, resulting in years of ...
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Blog
FDIC Posts New Requirements for Bank Resolution Plans
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has issued new guidance and requirements for the resolution plans federally insured banks with more than $50 billion in assets must submit. The guidance, which applies to 2015 submissions, provides direction regarding what must be discussed in a fully developed resolution strategy and an accompanying ...
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Blog
CFPB Sues Sprint Over Third-Party Charges
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit against Sprint, alleging that the wireless communications provider illegally billed its customers tens of millions of dollars in unauthorized third-party charges. The Bureau’s complaint alleges that Sprint allowed third parties to “cram” unauthorized charges on customers’ mobile-phone accounts and ignored ...
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Blog
Sanctions Rewrite Will Open Cuba to U.S. Companies
Seeking to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba, President Barack Obama has announced an easing of decades-old sanctions. Authorizing the export of goods for private sector Cuban companies "essentially throws the market open to U.S. companies,” Judith Lee, chair of the law firm Gibson Dunn's International Trade Regulation ...
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Blog
Bank CEOs, Boards Get Another Batch of Cyber-Security Help
Bank CEOs and boards have a fresh batch of cyber-security guidance to evaluate. On Wednesday, The Conference of State Bank Supervisors released “Cybersecurity 101: A Resource Guide for Bank Executives,” a document that collects industry-recognized standards and best practices that are currently used within the financial services industry.
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Blog
Senators Demand SEC Action on Pay-Ratio Rule
A coalition of senators, among them Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), penned a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White demanding that the SEC finalize its long-lingering pay-ratio rule. The rule, requiring public companies to disclose a ratio of CEO pay to that of their ...