All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 664
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Blog
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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CPAs Launch Research to Push Data Analytics in Audit
Image: The AICPA and Rutgers Business School haved formed a data analytics research initiative to demonstrate how the use of data analytics can advance the public accounting profession. According to Rutgers professor Miklos Vasarhelyi, the initiative’s two shared goals are “to examine how audit objectives might be achieved more effectively ...
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Steven Cohen Preparing Latest Constitutional Challenge to SEC's APs
The next constitutional challenge to the SEC's administrative proceedings process may be the most high-profile one to date. Lawyers for Steven A. Cohen confirmed that the SAC Capital founder intends to mount such a challenge if ongoing settlement talks are not successful.
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Revised Ofcom Guidelines Could Mean Higher Penalties
Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the U.K. communications industry, this month published updated penalty guidelines, which were last revised in 2011. The new guidelines give Ofcom greater flexibility to impose higher penalties for non-compliance. “Companies should therefore take immediate steps to assess and reduce such potential exposure ...
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Marsh Risk Consulting Names Cyber-Security Expert
Marsh, an insurance brokerage and risk management firm, has appointed Jim Holtzclaw as senior vice president of cyber-security consulting and advisory services at Marsh Risk Consulting (MRC). In his new role, Holtzclaw will work with a team of experts to implement MRC’s cyber-security consulting strategy, capabilities, and services in North ...
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SEC Settles Insider Case Based on Credit Card Sales Data
The SEC announced a partial settlement today in an unusual insider trading case that it brought earlier this year against Bonan Huang and Nan Huang -- two former employees in the fraud department at Capital One Financial Corp. The SEC alleges that the men made over $2.8 million in illegal ...
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SEC's Aguilar Looks Back at Seven Years of Progress
SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar will depart the SEC at the end of this month after serving as a commissioner for over seven years. With his last day at the SEC quickly approaching, Commissioner Aguilar posted an interesting statement on the SEC's website this week in which he shared some ...
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Reform Starts at the Top for FIFA
Image: You might think in today’s corporate world “tone at the top” would be so well worn that you need not repeat it. Yet, tone at the top apparently did warrant repeating for former FIFA head Sepp Blatter. Earlier this week, Blatter announced he would fight the eight-year suspension placed ...
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Treasury Amends Russia and Ukraine Sanctions List
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control yesterday designated and identified 34 new individuals and entities under four executive orders related to Russia and Ukraine. The updated sanctions list also provides several new lessons for compliance officers.
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Blog
FinCEN Fines First Card Club for Bank Secrecy Act Violations
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network this week announced its first settlement with, and assessment against, a “card club” gaming establishment for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The settlement and FinCEN’s assessment requires Oaks Card Club to pay a fine of $650,000 for willful violations of the BSA.
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Kindred Names General Counsel
Kindred Healthcare, a healthcare services company, has appointed Joseph Landenwich as general counsel, in addition to his current role as corporate secretary. He will assume the role following the retirement of M. Suzanne Riedman, general counsel and chief diversity officer, effective Jan. 31, 2016.
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Blog
UHY Elects New Chair
UHY, the international accounting and consultancy network, this month elected Bernard Fay as its new chairman, following 17 years as a UHY board director. With Fay’s election, the UHY network will be led for the first time by a director from outside its founding countries, the United States and ...
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Article
Managing Cyber-Risk in the Healthcare Industry
Image: Recent high-profile data breaches at several major healthcare providers have jolted the industry, which is trying to piece together better ways to manage the risks. “As opposed to an organization trying to invest more money in firewalls or other types of technical solutions to protect against an intrusion, at ...
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Article
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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Article
CFPB Critics Focus Fight on Data Collection
Fights over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are often focused on critics’ perceived lack of accountability and transparency. In recent weeks, those battles have doubled down on concerns about how the agency collects, protects, and uses data on consumers and financial institutions. CFPB foes say it is collecting more information ...
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Two New Partners Join PwC Risk Assurance Practice
PwC recently named two new partners to its Risk Assurance practice: Rick Warren has been appointed as a partner focusing on performance governance risk and compliance, while Khalid Wasti has been appointed as a partner focusing on internal technology audit solutions.
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SEC Urged Not to Abandon Political Spending Disclosures
Dozens of senators and members of Congress have sent a letter to the SEC expressing their view that the agency is still free to work on a rule requiring public companies to disclose political spending, despite a provision in the omnibus spending bill that prohibited it from using fiscal year ...
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Article
The GRC Audit Quandary
A “quandary” is an interesting word meaning: a state of perplexity or uncertainty over what to do in a difficult situation. A quandary is also what many internal auditors find themselves facing when they audit GRC capabilities. This GRC Illustrated column from Compliance Week and OCEG helps auditors answer the ...
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SEC Offers a Trial Run of Crowdfunding Filings
Under new SEC rules that take effect on May 16, companies will be permitted to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding. To do so, they must file the required disclosures about the offering on a new Form C. Future filers are now able to submit test filings on the new ...
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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 ...