e-Book: New Risks, Compliance Challenges in Pharma & Healthcare
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Latest News

SEC Explores 2-in-1 Filing Plan

The SEC is considering a simplification to the financial report filing process by allowing companies to file under a single method, known as in-line XBRL, which allows companies to include XBRL tags on HTML documents. Currently, companies must file under the traditional HTML format and the XBRL format separately.
 

PCAOB Leaves Auditor Rotation Discussion Off Adviser Agenda

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will assemble its advisory panel this week to address a range of emerging auditing issues, including going concern warnings, revenue recognition, and related-party transactions, but the agenda is perhaps most remarkable for what it doesn't address: mandatory audit firm rotation.
 

Compliance & Latin America:
Enthusiasm, Yes; Also Doubt

Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly spent last week in Buenos Aires, attending the first-ever Latin American Congress on Ethics, Transparency, and Anti-Corruption. So what's news in that other fast-growing market, the one that isn't Asia? Lots of enthusiasm for the spirit of anti-corruption efforts, Kelly reports, but an undercurrent of worry that the United States wants too much. More of Kelly's observations are inside.
 

China Audit Standoff to End

U.S. audit regulators will soon be allowed to observe their Chinese counterparts as they inspect firms that audit companies or units of companies that trade on U.S. exchanges, thanks to an agreement struck during a meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing earlier this month. Details inside.
 

SEC Unveils New System for IPO Confidential Registration Filing

Once limited to paper filings or writable CDs, emerging growth companies looking to take advantage of confidential draft registration statements made possible by the JOBS Act will now need to use a new SEC-secure e-mail system. Details inside.
 

JPMorgan Loss Fans Regulatory Flames, Provokes SEC Inquiry

JPMorgan's $2 billion loss from bets on "synthetic credit" is renewing the debate over how much new regulation of Wall Street is needed to rein in overly risky practices. Now the SEC has announced an investigation, and Volcker Rule proponents are calling for fewer exemptions in the rule for hedging activities. More inside.
 

Global Fraud Loss: $3.5 Trillion!

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners' report on global fraud finds that losses resulting from fraud cost companies around the world $3.5 trillion annually. Other findings: The average fraud takes place over a year and a half, the top detection method is through insider tips, and in half of all cases no losses are recovered. More report results inside.
 

Shareholder Claims Chesapeake Under-reported Jet Use Expense

A lawsuit filed last week against Chesapeake Energy is trying to clip the wings of its high-flying executives. The suit claims that the embattled company may have under-reported the cost of corporate jet travel by executives and directors and their families by as much as $10 million. More details inside.
 

In-Depth Coverage

Audit Firms’ Inspection Failures Could Mean Higher Audit Costs

After several large audit firms scored poor marks on their most recent round of audit inspections, many are responding by stepping up their game. They are investing more in training and staff, and planning on giving problem areas more scrutiny—all of which could drive costs higher. "We are doing a number of things differently," says Robert Moritz, chairman of PwC's U.S. operations. More inside.
 

Slow Start for Proxy Access

Efforts by shareholders to win the right to nominate board members directly haven't fared well so far this proxy season. Many companies successfully petitioned the SEC for permission to ignore proxy access proposals. Of 22 proposals, only three have gone to a vote and all of them lost. Still, shareholder activists say they aren't about to give up the fight. Details inside.
 

Integrating Risk Appetite With Enterprise Risk Management

Three years after the financial crisis, it's clear that companies still struggle with how to manage risk in the organization; just ask JPMorgan. Part of the difficulty: Getting a handle on risk across the organization is a complex undertaking which requires a careful balancing act. Integrating a formal statement of risk appetite with the risk-management program is an important step. Details inside.
 

Supreme Court Rules Against Corporate Liability Under TPVA

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that companies can't be held liable for claims under the Torture Victim Protection Act, because the law only applies to individuals. And while the high court has yet to rule on another case that asks whether companies can be held liable in the United States for human rights abuses abroad under the Alien Tort Statute, it may have tipped its hand on where it stands. Details inside.
 

Shareholders Weigh Derivative Suits to Push Governance Aims

A shareholder derivative lawsuit brought this month by the California State Teachers Retirement System—its first ever—against Walmart is creating concern among companies that such suits could become a more common tool to push for governance changes. "The focus of this action, unprecedented in CalSTRS history, is corporate governance reform," said CalSTRS Chief Executive Officer Jack Ehnes.
 

Columnist

Occupy Wall Street: Coming to a Shareholder Meeting Near You

The Occupy Wall Street movement is taking its protests to annual shareholder meetings, where it has already caused havoc for Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and even non-banks, such as Carnival Cruise Lines. Inside, Columnist Lou Thompson takes a look at the increasingly sophisticated organization and offers some tips on what to do if OWS is planning to occupy your shareholder meeting.
 

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Survey of the Week


Deloitte is conducting their annual Look Before You Leap: Managing Risks in Global Investments survey to better understand the approaches companies are taking to address compliance and integrity-related risks in emerging markets. 

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