All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 664
-
Blog
Poll Portends Big Changes in Executive Pay Disclosure
A recent poll by Towers Watson hints at big changes to come in disclosure of executive compensation, in the wake of the SEC’s proposed pay-for-performance rules. One-third of poll respondents said they expect to change their compensation disclosure significantly; 55 percent said they expect to provide additional information and analysis ...
-
Blog
Companies Pause on New Discontinued Operations Rule
Image: Companies are hitting bumps as they attempt to apply FASB’s new approach to defining discontinued operations. The standard says a discontinued operation is a major strategic shift and has a major impact on the entity, although it doesn’t provide guidance on how to define those terms, says Beth Paul, ...
-
Blog
Gallagher Uncorks on SEC Action Against CCOs
Image: SEC Commissioner Dan Gallagher, often a contrarian voice at the agency, spoke up again last week to denounce recent enforcement actions against compliance officers at investment advisory firms. Gallagher panned the SEC rule that dictates how investment advisers establish compliance procedures, and he railed that “the Commission seems to ...
-
Blog
Same Old, Same Old With SEC Budget Process
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal year 2016 appropriations bill eerily similar to the bill Congress passed four years ago—both bills appropriate $222 million less than the SEC requested, freeze the SEC’s budget at the prior year’s level, and prohibit the SEC from drawing upon an important ...
-
Blog
Sand Hill Exchange Founder Accepts Responsibility, Has Feedback for SEC
Despite a few outliers, most defendants in SEC settlements continue to settle cases "without admitting or denying" the allegations against them. While such language was also included in the Order memorializing the settlement of the SEC's recent administrative proceeding In the Matter of Sand Hill Exchange, et al., the settlement ...
-
Blog
Eletrobras Investigating Possible FCPA Violations
Brazil’s state-run power company Eletrobras announced this week in a Form 6-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has hired law firm Hogan Lovells to evaluate whether the company may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Brazil’s anti-corruption law, and Eletrobras’ Code of Ethics. Eletrobras said ...
-
Blog
Google and Amazon’s Antitrust Woes Continue
Image: This week, Europe’s Antitrust Chief Margrethe Vestager escalated a running regulatory battle with American tech giant Google—and Amazon is not too far behind. While the European Union launched an investigation into Amazon’s business practices last week, Vestager recently warned the online retailer about abusing its dominance in the marketplace ...
-
Blog
IAP Worldwide to Pay $7.1 Million in FCPA Case
Defense and government contracting company IAP Worldwide Services yesterday agreed to pay a $7.1 million penalty and entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice. The NPA requires IAP to “conduct a review of its existing internal controls, policies and procedures, and make any necessary modifications to ensure ...
-
Blog
Britain to be Exempted From EU’s Structural Reforms
Britain will be cleared of EU reforms that drop the axe on risky trading activities among big banks. The draft law was presented Wednesday to the EU’s state ambassadors for review. If it receives their support, the proposed law will be passed on to Parliament on Friday for approval. ...
-
Blog
Report: Attributes of Effective E&C Programs
Companies with top-performing ethics and compliance programs conduct formal assessments of their programs at least annually compared to their lower-scoring peers. They also are more likely to use metrics—such as audits, employee survey results, Code of Conduct violations, hotline call metrics, and more—in setting business objectives, and they typically have ...
-
Blog
Rite Aid Appoints Group VP of Risk and Controls
Rite Aid Corporation month appointed Paul Zikmund as group vice president of risk and controls, according to his LinkedIn profile. Zikmund joins the drug store chain from Bunge, where he served as director of global ethics and compliance since December 2011. Details inside.
-
Blog
SEC Might Explore Auditor Tenure for Audit Committee Disclosure
Image: When the SEC issues its audit committee discussion paper, it likely will explore more on the audit firm’s tenure and naming engagement partners. As the PCAOB has tried to get consensus on these themes, the board has heard pushback that the disclosure is better placed in audit committee reports, ...
-
Article
More Banks Tying Pay to Corporate Values
More financial institutions, facing pressure from regulators and investors, are starting to tie compensation practices to ethical behavior and appropriate risk-taking—although progress has been slow. “A consistent leadership culture is necessary in which corporate values, business strategy, and formal incentives support each other,” said Jürgen Fitschen, co-chair of the group ...
-
Article
SEC Rule on Pay-for-Performance Triggers Criticism on TSR Metric
Image: The SEC’s proposed pay-for-performance rule would require companies to disclose the relationship between executive compensation and Total Shareholder Return. A simple and effective metric? Not everyone thinks so. “At first blush it’s intuitive: executives should win as shareholders win,” says Barry Sullivan of compensation consulting firm Semler Brossy. The ...
-
Blog
Millennium Capital and Recovery Names Chief Compliance Officer
Millennium Capital and Recovery, a provider of nationwide recovery management services, has appointed Daniel Clevenger as general counsel and chief compliance officer. Clevenger will lead the company’s in-house legal and compliance activities. Details inside.
-
Article
Financial Compliance Teams Await Tech Help on Revenue Rule
Improved technology for financial systems will be critical as Corporate America moves to implement the impending new revenue recognition standard. That new tech, however, is slow-rolling its way to your data center, since the standard’s final guidance is still incomplete. “We knew going in we were not playing on a ...
-
Blog
PetroTiger Exonerated From FCPA Prosecution
First, it was Morgan Stanley in 2012. Now, for only the second time in the history of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (at least, that's been publicly reported), the Department of Justice has exonerated a company from FCPA prosection, despite guilty pleas by three of its top executives. The Justice ...
-
Blog
As BHP Enforcement Shows, the Proof Is in the Doing
Yes, Virginia, you can violate the FCPA even without bribing a foreign government official—just ask BHP Billiton, fined $25 million by the SEC for having a compliance program that looked great on paper, but was never strongly implemented. This week, columnist Tom Fox does a post-mortem on how BHP’s program ...