All Rules & Proposals articles – Page 58
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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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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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Blog
Sanctions Imposed on Venezuelan Officials
President Barack Obama signed an executive order today imposing sanctions on seven Venezuelan government officials for committing human rights violations, and declared a national emergency with respect to Venezuela. The executive order implements and expands on the Venezuela Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act, signed by the president ...
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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
EU Agencies Slow to Implement Whistleblowing Policies
Image: Title: O'ReillyDespite a year-old mandate to implement internal whistleblowing rules, only the European Commission and the Court of Auditors have followed through, according to EU Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly. O’Reilly said, “The public needs to know that the EU institutions welcome whistleblowing and protect whistleblowers against retaliation to make ...
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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
Canada Gets Serious on Enforcement
Canadian securities regulators for the first time are proposing a whistleblower rewards program, modeled after the SEC’s program created by the Dodd-Frank Act. The proposed initiative is the latest move by Canadian authorities toward a U.S.-style enforcement regime—and in some instances an even harsher one. “Canadian enforcement is going to ...
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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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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 ...
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Article
ABA Seeks Clarity for Corporate Monitors
Image: The American Bar Association is mulling new standards for corporate monitors that effectively could make the monitorship process a lot easier, cheaper, and transparent for compliance officers working with them. “The standards go a long way toward facilitating a better relationship between the monitor and the company,” says John ...
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Blog
SEC Commissioners Irate Over Comment Letter Glitch
SEC Commissioners Daniel Gallagher and Michael Piwowar fired off a testy complaint Wednesday about “a significant failure” of the SEC’s rulemaking process, complaining that SEC staff missed “an extensive comment letter” opposing a recently adopted rule on swaps trading. The oversight should force a reopening of the comment period, they ...
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Blog
EU Firms Face New AML Rules, Beneficial Ownership Registry
Image: Title: SargentiniThe European Union is pressing forward with its overhaul of anti-money laundering rules to clamp down on tax evasion and the financing of terrorism. The Council of the European Union signed off on the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, tightening due diligence and reporting requirements, creating registers of beneficial ...
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Article
Why Boilerplate Battles Continue to Rage
Image: Again and again, with both guidance and comment letters, the SEC has urged companies to avoid using “boilerplate” language in disclosures—and companies never seem to embrace the message. “There is an extraordinary amount of boilerplate disclosure across topics and across industries,” says Jean Rogers, head of the Sustainability Accounting ...
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Blog
SEC Seeks New Disclosures When Directors Hedge Securities
A rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday would require companies to disclose policies that allow directors and employees to hedge securities awarded as part of a compensation package. The intent is to inform shareholders if executives are permitted to purchase financial instruments that allow them to ...
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Article
Planning Ahead to Manage M&A Due Diligence
Image: Lots of mergers look great on paper. In the real world, however, integrating corporate IT systems can not only be a headache for the IT department; core business functions can be compromised—including financial reporting or other tasks crucial to effective corporate compliance. “Smart companies are ready to start integrating ...
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Blog
Federal Contractors Face Human Trafficking Compliance
A new rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires that federal contractors doing more than $500,000 in business outside the United States develop a human trafficking compliance plan and certify that, to the best of their knowledge, neither they nor any of their sub-contractors has engaged in forced labor.