All Rules & Proposals articles – Page 56
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Blog
New Conflict Minerals Reporting Template Available
The Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative has published an update to its Conflict Minerals Reporting Template, a tool for tracing the use of conflict minerals in a company’s supply chain and validating smelters. CMRT 4.0, a free reporting template, expedites the identification of new smelters and refiners that may undergo an audit ...
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Article
Throwing Books & Records at ’Em
Image: Compliance officers responsible for accurate books and records and effective internal control over financial reporting may be entering a brave new world of regulatory enforcement. The SEC is stepping up its use of administrative proceedings to impose strict liability on even relatively minor infractions of securities law. “The SEC ...
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Article
Latest Pay Disclosure: Bring on the Metrics, Break Out the Peers
Image: Compensation committees and external reporting executives should brace for impact from the SEC’s newest addition to executive compensation disclosure: pay-for-performance rules. The detailed new disclosures (tagged in XBRL, no less) will be extensive, the consequences for executive pay unknown. “How useful is this information really going to be? To ...
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Blog
Despite LIBOR Manipulation, SEC Grants Deutsche Bank Waiver
Image: The SEC has decided not to let an admission of LIBOR manipulation result in the loss of Deutsche Bank’s well-known seasoned issuer status. “It is safe to assume that these waiver requests will continue to roll in, as issuers are now emboldened by an unofficial Commission policy to overlook ...
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Blog
SEC Revisits Cross-Border Swap Rules
The Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to better define the requirements for security-based swap transactions that involve a foreign entity’s activity in the United States. A new proposed rule addresses what to do when only certain activities involving a security-based swap transaction occur within the United States. More inside.
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Blog
SEC Proposes Pay-Versus-Performance Disclosure Rule
The SEC has proposed a new pay-for-performance disclosure rule, requiring companies to report the relationship between compensation paid to named executive officers and the Total Shareholder Return of both the company and its peer group. The proposal marks the first time the Commission will require data tagging in the XBRL ...
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Blog
Legislation Seeks Transparency on Tax-Deductible Settlements
A bill filed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) would require transparency on tax deductions that minimize the cost of an enforcement action. Any statement by a federal agency about the value of a settlement would need to explain how much of that agreement is tax deductible ...
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Article
Volcker Compliance Deadline Creeps Up
Image: For all the political controversy still surrounding the Volcker Rule, its biggest compliance obligation—implementing new controls and training to root out forbidden trading—has a looming deadline in July. “You’ve got to build an infrastructure,” says David Freeman of the law firm Arnold & Porter. “That’s a bigger effort than ...
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Blog
SEC Eyes ‘Pay for Performance’ Rules Next Week
The SEC will hold an open meeting April 29 to take action on pay-for-performance disclosure rules required by the Dodd-Frank Act. The Commission will consider rules stemming from Section 953 of Dodd-Frank, requiring public companies to disclose the relationship between executive pay and incentives with the financial performance of the ...
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Blog
FDIC Mulls New Recordkeeping Requirements for Big Banks
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is considering new recordkeeping requirements for the nation’s largest banks to streamline the process for reimbursing insured depositors should one of them fail. New recordkeeping standards would likely apply to banks with more than $2 million in account value. Details inside.
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Article
Sentencing Commission Shifts Focus on Fraud Punishments
The U.S. Sentencing Commission has adopted new sentencing guidelines for financial fraud, heaping more punishment on masterminds but reducing penalties for others who might be lower-level minions in such frauds. The change has provoked mixed emotions in the legal community. Some welcome the new flexibility extended to judges as they ...
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Article
Conflict Minerals: From Compliance to Risk Management
Image: As a June 1 deadline nears for companies’ second year of conflict minerals compliance, some might consider life beyond the next Form SD filing to a broader risk management program for suppliers. It can be done, particularly with the OECD’s framework for conflict minerals due diligence. “The entire rule ...
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Blog
Volcker Offers Sweeping New Reform Ideas
Image: Paul Volcker, the famed former Fed chairman and namesake of the most controversial rule in the Dodd-Frank Act, is proposing a slate of financial reform proposals that would merge the SEC and CFTC and create new regulatory agencies. The Volcker Alliance—a non-partisan, non-profit organization launched in 2013—issued a report ...
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Blog
Lockheed Wants Out of 40-Year-Old Disclosure Demand
Lockheed Martin wants a federal judge to end a 40-year-old SEC requirement of advance notice for changes to its anti-bribery policies. Lockheed argues that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, FCPA requirements, and a move to online shareholder information make the requirement obsolete and unnecessary. More inside.
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Blog
Dodd-Frank: Remember the History Before Pushing Reform
Image: As the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act approaches, we’ll hear more talk about whether the law needs reform; in fact, we already hear that talk in Congress. Before we go too far, Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly writes, we should remember what caused the financial crisis in 2008 ...
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Blog
HIPAA Privacy and Security Guidance Updated
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has released an updated version of its privacy and security guidance to help healthcare providers better understand how to integrate federal health information privacy and security requirements into their practices. The guidance was last published in 2011. Details inside.
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Blog
House Vote Demands More Transparency from CFPB
The House of Representatives, with a 401-2 vote, has approved legislation that requires the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to comply with Federal Advisory Committee Act transparency requirements. The Federal Reserve, CIA, and CFPB are among the agencies not covered by the law. More inside.
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Blog
Warren on the Warpath: Slams SEC, Pitches Financial Reforms
Image: Slamming the SEC and Justice Department for a “slap on the wrist” approach to enforcement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in a recent speech, also championed a slate of financial reforms, including a transaction tax to restrain high-frequency trading, restoring the former Glass-Steagall Act, and reducing the size and risk of ...
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Blog
ECB Says Financial Sector Regaining its Momentum
Eurozone banks are expecting to provide more loans to companies in the coming months—a move that puts the banking sector back in the spotlight amid a downturn in recent years. The European Central Bank (ECB) said in its quarterly Bank Lending Survey that “there have been substantial improvements in the ...
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Article
CFTC Case Against Kraft Puts Cos. on Hedge
Image: A novel interpretation of the Dodd-Frank Act is rattling buyers of raw materials. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission is moving against Kraft Foods for a big bet in the wheat market, using a section of Dodd-Frank everyone previously assumed was intended to curb high-frequency traders. “The case shows that ...