All Rules & Proposals articles – Page 46
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Article
Failure is not an option
Image: As one of the world’s eight designated Systemically Important Financial Markets Utilities, the Options Clearing Corporation has what some might charitably describe as a heightened compliance profile. But thanks to the work of Chief Compliance Officer Richard Wallace and an enterprise-wide effort to build a world-league compliance program, the ...
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Article
SEC, CFTC ‘milestones’ resolve issues with cross-border swaps deals
Consider it regulatory kismet. Independently, on Feb. 10, the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission finalized long-lingering rules and agreements needed to resolve concerns with the international marketplace for derivatives deals. The SEC’s new rules cover foreign swaps dealers who maintain trading desks in the United States, closing a perceived ...
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Blog
European Commission concedes one-year MiFID II extension
The European Commission has proposed a one-year extension to the implementation date of its revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, better known as MiFID II, a comprehensive slate of unified regulations across member states for securities markets and investment firms. The new date will be Jan. 3, 2018. The delay ...
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Blog
House advances controversial slate of SEC rule changes
A legislative package, recently passed by the House of Representatives, is drawing fire from Democrats and the White House. The bills, bundled as the Capital Markets Improvement Act of 2016, include changes to current SEC rules pertaining to company-issued employee stock, broker-dealer research reports, M&A brokers, and the use of ...
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Blog
SEC’s White offers insight on 2016 priorities
In a wide-ranging conversation at Northwestern University, SEC Chairman Mary Jo White detailed her thoughts on a variety of topics, offering fresh perspective on agency priorities for the months ahead, including the ongoing disclosure effectiveness review, a new accredited investor definition, and the “clawback” rule for executive compensation.
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Article
Regulating the way to equal pay
Image: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission this month proposed two controversial pay equity reporting requirements that effectively would impose burdensome new compensation collection obligations on companies with at least 100 employees, and federal contractors with at least 50 employees, starting in 2017. “This information will assist employers in evaluating their ...
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Blog
White House plan would double SEC’s budget by 2021
Don’t expect the proposal to emerge unscathed from its trip through partisan debate, but a budget plan announced this week by President Obama would provide the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission the biggest boost to their bottom lines in recent years, with plans to double their fiscal year 2015 ...
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Article
Data collection could be key to battling trade-based money laundering
Trade-based money laundering is a common technique for funding terrorist activities through seemingly innocuous trade activity that essentially hides criminal transactions in plain sight. And it will take the combined efforts of U.S. Customs, FinCEN, the Department of Commerce, and port authorities (and their counterparts in other countries) to compile ...
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Article
Fiduciary duty rules poised to redefine an industry
It sounds reasonable enough: hold broker-dealers and investment advisers to a fiduciary standard when they offer investment advice, specifically with retirement plans. Firms, however, fear that pending rules, split between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Labor, are not in sync and unintended consequences will radically alter traditional ...
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Blog
SEC Petitioned for Gender-Based Pay Ratio Disclosures
An investment adviser to the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund has filed a rulemaking petition with the SEC, seeking a requirement that companies disclose gender-based pay ratios on an annual basis. “We believe that pay equity is a useful and material indicator of well managed, well-governed companies, and conversely, ...
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Blog
BlackRock CEO Urges Rethinking of Quarterly Earnings
Image: In recent months an increasing number of investor advocates have expressed concerns that companies worry more about short-term quarterly earnings and estimates, not enough about long-term, sustainable growth. In a Feb. 1 letter to nearly 500 companies, Laurence Fink, co-founder and CEO of BlackRock offered his take, urging “resistance ...
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Blog
New Customs Database Triggers Regulatory Concerns
Image: By the end of 2016, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection will require that all cargo shipment details be reported through ACE (Automated Commercial Environment), a new electronic processing system. Use of this system, aimed at automating and consolidating border processing, brings with a number of challenges for both ...
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Article
Debate continues over the practice of quarterly reporting
Amid discussion about reforms to the SEC’s disclosure regime, perhaps no idea is as controversial as the rethinking of how frequently companies must disclose financial information. While it may seem a cornerstone of public filings, quarterly 10-Q financial statements have only been an SEC requirement since 1970. There’s now a ...
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Blog
Public Procurement Simplified Across the EU
A new system adopted by the European Commission that went into force last week considerably reduces the administrative burden for companies that want to have a fair shake at winning a public contract. According to the European Commission, simplification of the tender procedure is just one of the major elements ...
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Blog
SEC Extends Comment Period for Extractive Payments Rule
The Securities and Exchange Commission has extended its public comment period for its second attempt at a rule requiring the disclosure of payments made to governments by energy and mining companies for extraction rights. The new deadlines are Feb. 16 for the first round of commentary and March 8 for ...
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ArticleThink the FTC Isn’t Monitoring Big Data? Think Again
Companies that use Big Data analytics will want to carefully review a new report issued this month by the Federal Trade Commission, which warns companies about the sort of ethical, legal, and compliance risks they could encounter when using data analytics practices that fly in the face of consumer protection ...
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Article
SEC Committee Ups Ante in Fight Against FASB Materiality Changes
Members of the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee are ramping up their fight with FASB over proposals that redefine its approach to materiality in financial statements. The plan is “fraught with the risk that disclosures that are unfavorable to the issuer are disproportionately viewed as immaterial and as a result excluded ...
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Article
New DoL Guidance Has Chilling Effect on Third-Party Relationships
Does your company use sub-contractors or have franchisees? Ever put a vendor compliance program in place? If so, new guidance from the Department of Labor is about to make life more complicated. It broadens how joint employer relationships—where two or more companies cooperatively employ workers—will be defined and applied under ...
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Blog
Is Cobalt the Next Conflict Mineral?
Under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s conflict minerals rule, public companies are required to track the source of tantalum, tin, gold, and tungsten in their supply chains. A push is on to require similar measures for cobalt, with a call for additional supply chain due diligence made in a new ...
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Article
The Silver Lining of Sharing Data on Cyber-Risks
After many months of debate, President Obama finally signed the Cyber-Security Information Sharing Act into law. The question businesses are asking: In practical terms, is it good news or yet another cyber-security-triggered migraine? While concerns abound, notably around privacy issues, companies may still find plenty to appreciate in the legislation ...