All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 701
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Blog
OCIE Provides Key Observations from 2014 Cybersecurity Examination Initiative
On April 15, 2014, the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations announced that it would be conducting examinations of more than 50 registered broker-dealers and registered investment advisers focused on cybersecurity governance and risk. Until yesterday, there has been little or no information from the SEC concerning the results ...
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Blog
SEC Exams Reveal Mixed Bag of Financial Firms' Cyber-Security Efforts
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations examined 106 broker-dealers and investment advisers in an effort to better understand how they address the legal, regulatory, and compliance issues associated with cyber-security. An OCIE risk alert released this week breaks down the findings of the ...
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Article
SEC, FINRA Dropping Hints on Risk
Compliance officers looking to read some tea leaves about what worries the Securities and Exchange Commission these days might want to skim the 2015 exam priorities that the SEC and FINRA have posted. That guidance applies foremost to financial firms, but “it’s only a matter of time before they require ...
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Blog
Pension Protection Fund Names Chief Risk Officer
The Pension Protection Fund, a U.K.-based fund established to pay compensation to members of eligible defined benefit pension schemes, has appointed Hans den Boer as its chief risk officer. He will oversee all of the PPF’s risk functions and becomes a member of the executive committee. Details inside.
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Article
CW 2015 Preview: Assessing Antitrust Risks
Image: Enforcement of antitrust law is rising around the world, particularly in some of the most desirable markets for overseas expansion, including China, India, Brazil, and Mexico. Inside, we have an overview of how to assess your antitrust risks—which can be quite different from one country (or one product line) ...
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Blog
Preparing Your Board for Revenue Recognition
The first rule of care and feeding of directors: no surprises. A major one lurks in the new revenue recognition rules, due to be implemented in 2017. Early surveys show most boards and audit committees have little idea what is looming on the horizon. This week, columnists Stephen Davis and ...
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Article
What a Good FCPA Audit Looks Like
Image: An audit of compliance with your company’s FCPA policies is no easy task. It requires skilled personnel, sophisticated data analytics, and an understanding of the difference between an audit and investigation. Inside, we walk through the fundamentals of all three. “The focus is really to create dialogue” with audit ...
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Blog
S&P to Pay $1.375 Billion for Ratings Misconduct
Image: Standard & Poor’s Financial Services and its parent company McGraw Hill Financial reached a $1.375 billion settlement with the Department of Justice for engaging in a scheme to defraud investors in structured financial products. “As part of the resolution, S&P admitted facts demonstrating that it misrepresented itself to investors ...
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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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Article
Balancing Best Practices and Reality in Compliance
Everyone likes best practices in compliance, and everyone knows the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines are the cornerstone of an effective compliance program. The truth is not quite so perfect: Best practices can be impractical, and not all guidance about the Guidelines is clear. This week, guest columnist Susan Divers, a former ...
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Article
More Hints on Audit Report 2.0
New international requirements for an expanded audit report are providing a teaser for what the United States should expect in coming years. The new international standard is modeled on an earlier U.K. version, and it’s similar to a proposal expected from the PCAOB this year. The details differ, but the ...
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Blog
No Charges in News Corp. Phone Hacking Scandal
Twenty-First Century Fox and News Corp. announced in separate regulatory filings with the SEC that the Justice Department will not file charges following the completion of its investigation into the phone hacking scandal. Both companies faced potential charges for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act concerning alleged bribes paid ...
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Blog
FASB May Offer Deferral, Early Adoption on Revenue Rule
The Financial Accounting Standards Board is considering both a deferral of its sweeping new revenue recognition rule and early adoption for companies ready to proceed, a FASB spokesman said Monday. FASB will decide later this spring on those ideas, after hearing more input from companies preparing for the current 2017 ...
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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.
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Blog
Recommind Adds Business Intelligence to e-Discovery
Recommind, an information intelligence provider, has released the newest version of its cloud-based e-Discovery platform Axcelerate 5. With the latest upgrades, Axcelerate 5 now brings enterprise-grade business intelligence to e-Discovery, providing total visibility into the time, cost, and quality of document review. Details inside.
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Blog
Audit Committees, Operational Risk, and Unease
Image: News flash: Audit committees are still overworked and unsure how to handle new risks confronting Corporate America. So says the 2015 edition of the KPMG Audit Committee Survey, which tells some good news on financial reporting risks, amid a more troubling morass of operational and cyber-security risks nobody seems ...
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Blog
JPMorgan Breach Leads to Multi-State Probe
The attorneys general of 19 states have launched a joint investigation into JP Morgan, in the wake of its massive data breach last year that affected 76 million households and millions more small businesses. In a letter to JP Morgan sent last month, the states present a long list of ...
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Blog
TimkenSteel Elects New Independent Directors
TimkenSteel elected two new independent directors: Randall Edwards, president and chief operating officer of Premier Pipe, and Ronald Rice, president and chief operating officer of RPM International. Details inside.
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Blog
Risk Retention Rule Finalized for Asset-Backed Securities
Bank regulators, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Housing Finance Agency, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have jointly issued a final rule that imposes credit risk retention requirements on sponsors of asset-backed securities. The rule requires sponsors to hold at least 5 percent of the ...