All SEC articles – Page 76
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Blog
SEC: JPMorgan Misled Customers on Broker Pay
Image: JPMorgan’s brokerage business has agreed to pay $4 million to the SEC to settle charges that it falsely stated on its private banking website and in marketing materials that advisers are compensated based on client performance, rather than commission. According to SEC Enforcement Division Director Andrew Ceresney, “JPMS ...
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SEC Watch: No Respite on Regulatory Reform in 2016
If the SEC had hoped that clearing its plate of most Dodd-Frank Act and JOBS Act mandates would make 2016 a year to focus on other initiatives, well, Washington has other ideas. The agency will be busy with a new round of rulemaking thanks to the FAST Act, plus ongoing ...
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FCPA Enforcement Trends to Watch in 2016
Image: A recalibrated focus by the government on individual culpability, expanding cross-border cooperation and prosecutions, and hordes of new whistleblower complaints are just a few upcoming enforcement trends that are expected to elicit some big compliance headaches in 2016. “The FCPA Unit, it seems to us, is working as hard ...
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Blog
Is That Disposal a Discontinued Operation? SEC Staff Offer Views
SEC Associate Chief Accountant Barry Kanczuker says FASB’s new standard on when a particular disposal should be characterized as a discontinued operation isn’t always clear cut. Kanczuker says companies will have to apply judgment to what constitutes a relevant financial result; look at financial results that might be relevant to ...
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SEC Offers View on Pension Measurement Considerations
Image: The SEC is open to the new methods some companies are considering to revise their approach to certain pension accounting assumptions. The Commission recently consulted with companies and accounting firms on two different approaches—single weighted-average and disaggregated or “spot rate.” “After considering their specific facts and circumstances, we have ...
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SEC’s Latest Extractive Payments Rule Still Leaves Unanswered Questions, Concerns
The Securities and Exchange Commission has once again proposed a rule requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to governments for extraction rights. And, once again, legal teams are sharpening their pencils while covered companies sweat the details. An earlier try at the Dodd-Frank Act-required rulemaking lingered ...
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Regulators Suggest It’s Time to Double Down on Internal Controls
Image: After nearly a year of moderating corporate gripes of excessive auditing driven by regulatory inspections, regulators say the answer is for companies to double down on their controls and use a little more muscle with their auditors. “Preparers are on the back end of the compliance funnel,” said Kevin ...
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SEC Enforcement Trends to Watch in 2016
Image: A legal analysis of SEC enforcement brought in 2015, along with recent speeches given by SEC enforcement staff, provide a pretty clear roadmap of where the enforcement staff will continue to focus its top priorities in 2016. “Making sure you are addressing those issues in your compliance programs is ...
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Blog
2016 GAAP Taxonomy Ready for Use, Pending SEC Approval
FASB has released its final update of the 2016 GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, pending acceptance by the SEC, to allow public companies to prepare to use it to complete their XBRL filings. The annual update allows FASB staff to make the taxonomy easier to navigate and more effective in reflecting ...
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Is the FAST Act Really Just the JOBS Act 1.5?
Amid speculation of when, or if, Congress would get around to a JOBS Act 2.0—a sequel to a 2012 package of securities law reforms—some of those items surprisingly appeared in a new spending bill for transportation infrastructure. Tucked into the bill are a variety of requirements for the SEC regarding ...
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Blog
Analogic Faces $15 Million FCPA Settlement
Analogic, an airport security and medical-imaging technology provider, said this week in a quarterly filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice have made separate settlement proposals to resolve a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case totaling payments of approximately $15 million.
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Blog
SEC Looks for Disclosures, Consistency in Revenue Rule; May Offer Guidance
Image: Companies that can’t say by year’s end how they will be affected by the new revenue standard should let investors know when they will have it sorted out. SEC Deputy Chief Accountant Wesley Bricker said recently, “As companies prepare their annual financial statements over the next couple of months, ...
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Regulators Continue Full Throttle on Internal Controls
Image: SEC Chief Accountant Jim Schnurr is encouraging preparers to communicate more with auditors and consider that tensions might be escalating because their controls aren’t up to snuff. “The ICFR issues identified by the PCAOB may not be just a problem of audit execution,” Schnurr said. “Rather, they may, at ...
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SEC to Consider Staff Proposal on IFRS
Image: The SEC is considering making amendments to rules that would give domestic issuers the chance to provide IFRS-based information as a supplement to U.S. GAAP financial statements. At a recent conference, SEC Chair Mary Jo White said, “The staff has now developed a recommendation for the Commission’s consideration, which ...
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Article
SEC’s Concerns Prod a Rethinking of Outsourced Compliance
Image: Faced with budget constraints, firms frequently turn to external professionals to supplement compliance programs—but the SEC has provided a laundry list of problems with that approach. “The SEC has not banned outsourced compliance in any way or said it is presumptively disfavored, but reading between the lines you get ...
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Blog
SEC Charges Grant Thornton, Two Partners
The SEC delivered a heavy blow to Grant Thornton and two of its engagement partners last week with charges they ignored red flags and fraud risks at two public companies that ultimately faced enforcement actions of their own. Grant Thornton agreed to a penalty of $3 million, forfeited $1.5 million ...
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Amid Financial Reporting Changes, SEC Offers Cautions
With changes looming on accounting standards for revenue recognition, leases, financial instruments, and more, skittish corporate accountants often turn to the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance and staff accountants, relying on phone briefings and pre-clearing consultations to get ahead of financial reporting issues before they result in an SEC comment ...
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Working With External Compliance Monitors
Image: So your company has just entered into a settlement with a U.S. government agency and must now install a compliance monitor. How do you respond? For many companies, working with an external compliance monitor is still an intimidating process tainted by misconceptions. “A monitorship was never designed to ...
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SEC Girds for Next Wave of Political Battles
On paper, the next several months mark the final stretch for the SEC’s implementation of Dodd-Frank Act rulemaking. In reality expect continued battles over the law, waged by both Republicans and Democrats. Recent congressional hearings gave a sense of what’s to come: stress tests for asset management funds, fights over ...
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Blog
PTC Could Pay $28.2 Million in FCPA Case
Computer software company PTC disclosed in an annual report last week that it is discussing a tentative $28.2 million settlement with the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve an investigation of potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The potential violations concern expenditures by ...