Disclosures

FASB Plans Disclosure Paper in 2012

April 04, 2012

The Financial Accounting Standards Board expects to issue a discussion document this summer outlining some new ideas about how to establish disclosure requirements and, the board hopes, how to whittle away at current disclosures that are unnecessary. More details inside.
 

California Passes New Supply Chain Transparency Law

January 24, 2012

Retailers and manufacturers doing business in California, beware: state law there has just added supply chain exposure to slavery and human trafficking to the long list of corporate disclosures you must make. The risk for businesses is that if you don't ask your suppliers the right questions, "you don't get the right answers," warns Colette Simo, head of compliance for OfficeMax. Full coverage inside.
 

Investors Need a Disclosure Break, Study Concludes

November 21, 2011

Investors are struggling with the volume and complexity of public company disclosures, making it difficult to make good investment decisions, according to the latest research by KPMG and the Financial Executives Research Foundation. The report recommends that the SEC work to reduce unnecessary disclosure requirements. More details and recommendations inside.
 

U.K. Regulators Scale Back Narrative Reporting

October 25, 2011

British regulators have slashed the volume of narrative reporting listed U.K. companies must file, a dramatic shift to alleviate reporting burdens. Gone are the business review, a report on directors' pay, and several other statements. Too many businesses are wasting time "producing large, complex reports that lie unread by investors," the government said in a statement announcing the plan.
 

FASB Preps New Rule on Liquidity, Interest Rate Risks

September 14, 2011

The Financial Accounting Standards Board announced its plan to establish new disclosure requirements for all companies to say more about their risks related to liquidity. Financial institutions will also be required to make further disclosures about risks tied to changes in interest rates.
 

FASB Project May Reduce Financial Disclosure Burden

September 07, 2011

Public companies could see a reduction in the total amount of financial disclosure they make if the Financial Accounting Standards Board proceeds as planned with a project, still in the early stages, to develop a better, simpler framework for how decisions about financial disclosures are made. That said, deciding what to leave out won't be easy. "The demand for information is virtually unlimited," says John Hepp, a partner at Grant Thornton.
 

A Conversation With Rio Tinto's Top Compliance Minder

May 24, 2011

Neville Tiffen took over the top compliance job at global mining company Rio Tinto two years ago. Since then he's orchestrated a full review of the company's compliance program. Inside, Tiffen details his thinking on the U.K. Bribery Act, the quick pace of U.S. regulation, and how to build a culture that encourages employees to speak up when they see someone doing the wrong thing.
 

FDA Issues First Regulations Under Food Safety Modernization Act

May 04, 2011

The Food and Drug Administration issued two new interim final rules today that will take effect on July 3. The first allows the agency to detain any food for up to 30 days "if there is reason to believe that an article of food is adulterated or misbranded." The second is a new reporting requirement for anyone importing food into the United States.
 

Dodd-Frank Provisions Delayed As Much As 6 Months

April 11, 2011

The SEC has decided to delay rulemaking on numerous provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act for as long as six months, including rules on compensation committee and compensation adviser independence, disclosures on conflict minerals, pay-for-performance, clawback rules, and other proposals. Details inside.
 

Controversial Proxy Access Rule Gets Its Day in Court

April 05, 2011

The Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable made their best case last week for rescinding the Dodd-Frank Act's SEC proxy access rule in a federal appeals court. The rule, on hold since October, would allow shareholders with at least 3 percent of a company to nominate directors on the proxy.
 

SEC Approves Two Dodd-Frank Rule Proposals

March 30, 2011

The SEC unanimously approved plans to propose two more rules mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. One would require issuers of asset-backed securities to retain at least 5 percent credit risk to keep some skin in the game. The other would lead to new disclosure requirements for compensation advisers.
 

Oil, Gas, and Mineral Developers Debate Disclosure

March 21, 2011

An SEC proposal requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments has generated a flurry of suggestions during the comment period. Industry representatives are asking the Commission for exclusions for small companies and from requirements that are inconsistent with non-U.S. laws.
 

PCAOB Targets Rules at Disclosures, Audit Reports

March 15, 2011

Audit regulators are starting to percolate some new guidance that would tell auditors to think and act a little more like detectives when auditing financial statement disclosures and to say more about their work in their audit reports. Details inside.
 

Oil, Gas, and Mining Disclosure Proposal Raises Questions

January 25, 2011

The SEC issued a proposal in December that would require public oil, natural gas, and mining companies to disclose details about payments they make to governments. However, critics say the proposal is unclear, uses poorly defined terms, and is fraught with unintended consequences. Details inside.
 

Regulator Turns Spotlight on Smaller Company Reporting

November 29, 2010

The U.K.’s financial reporting regulator will direct its focus onto smaller listed companies next year, putting the spotlight on those outside the FTSE 350.The Financial Reporting Review Panel said it would be scrutinizing smaller companies in niche markets as a priority because in a sluggish economy they faced greater risks...
 

Like Google, Microsoft Goes Web Only for Earnings Details

November 10, 2010

Microsoft became the latest company to drop a long-standing practice of distributing its full quarterly financial results via newswire in favor of issuing a shorter release pointing people to its investor relations Website to find them.The move, announced in advance of the software giant's first-quarter fiscal 2011 results on Oct....
 

SEC Letter Calls for Mortgage, Foreclose Risk Disclosures

November 01, 2010

The Securities and Exchange Commission has penned an open letter to chief financial officers reminding them be sure their 10-Qs and 10-Ks contain plenty of disclosures regarding any risks the company may face related to mortgages and foreclosure-related activities.The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance sent the letter directly to an...
 

SEC Dodd-Frank Derivatives, ABS Rulemaking Underway

October 18, 2010

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun a wave of Dodd-Frank Act-mandated rulemaking aimed at closing the regulatory gaps in the over-the-counter derivatives market and giving investors better information about the loans backing asset-backed securities.The reform law requires the Commission to issue a slew of rules to bring the complex...
 

Report Says More Work Needed on Climate Risk Disclosure

October 13, 2010

Despite the attention it's getting from some investor groups and new guidance aimed at compelling more reporting, corporate climate risk disclosure still has a long way to go, according to an analysis of 100 large-cap U.S. companies' climate risk disclosures.Very few companies address all of the issues outlined in the...
 

SEC Stays Proxy Access Rule Amid Questions on Validity

October 05, 2010

Corporate America can breathe a sigh of relief—at least for now. The Securities and Exchange Commission has stayed its controversial proxy access rule until a court rules on a petition to have the rule thrown out.The surprise SEC move came in response to a Sept. 29 petition filed by the...
 

The SEC's Busy Dodd-Frank Rulemaking Schedule

September 21, 2010

Those involved in any facet of corporate compliance, governance, and/or financial reporting now have a roadmap of sorts for what they can expect to fill up their calendar—and to submit comments on—in the coming months.The Securities and Exchange Commission has laid out a schedule of how it plans to tackle...
 

SEC Wants Better Disclosures Around Funding, Liquidity

September 21, 2010

Companies will soon have some explaining to do in their management discussion and analysis regarding how they manage their short-term debt and liquidity.The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing some new disclosure requirements that would compel companies to better describe how they manage their short-term borrowing throughout a financial reporting...
 

SEC Considers New Disclosure for Short-Term Borrowings

September 14, 2010

The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to impose some new disclosure requirements on short-term borrowings intended to prevent window dressing of the company’s financial statements.The Commission has scheduled an open meeting for Friday, Sept. 17, to “consider whether to propose rules that would require a public company to provide...
 

SEC Plans Response to Senate Call for Disclosure

August 20, 2010

Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is drafting a letter to respond to a half dozen U.S. senators who are urging the SEC to do something more about off-balance-sheet accounting maneuvers.Led by Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey who serves on the Senate Committee on Finance,...
 

Ownership Guidelines, Holding Requirement Trends

July 30, 2010

With executive pay under an increasingly harsh spotlight, more large companies are attempting to link pay with performance by requiring executives to build stakes in their firms through stock ownership guidelines and holding requirements, according to an analysis of Fortune 250 companies by compensation research firm Equilar Inc.Of 237 public...
 

SEC Open for Dodd Frank Rulemaking Comments

July 27, 2010

With an agenda full of congressionally mandated studies and rulemaking to tackle thanks to the Dodd-Frank Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying a new approach to getting public input: inviting public comment on a number of topics even before it has proposed rules or opened official comment periods.With...
 

FASB Requires More Disclosures Around Credit Risk

July 23, 2010

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has finalized a stop-gap disclosure rule to flesh out more information about the credit quality of financing receivables as it continues to develop a more comprehensive standard on financial instruments.Accounting Standards Update No. 2010-20, Receivables (Topic 310) calls for more credit risk disclosures to give...
 

SEC's Corp Fin Creates Three New Specialized Offices

July 19, 2010

First the Securities and Exchange Commission's Enforcement Division got an overhaul, now major changes are underway in the Division of Corporation Finance, the unit that reviews public company filings.Corp Fin is creating three new specialized offices focusing on large financial institutions, asset-backed securities and other structured products, and securities offering...
 

Schapiro on Proxy Plumbing, Required Disclosures

June 23, 2010

Should proxy advisory firms should be subject to greater Commission oversight and if so, what should that look like? Should there be checks on the accuracy of the information provided by proxy advisers? Are advisers who provide services to both corporations and investors managing and disclosing the resulting conflicts of...
 

Report Shows CEO Club Membership Benefits Hold Steady

March 24, 2010

The sunlight of disclosure and heightened public outrage over excessive pay amid the financial crisis has seen some perks fall by the wayside. However, club memberships don't appear to be one of them.Among more than 3,000 U.S. public companies studied, 382 had chief executives who received club membership fee benefits...
 

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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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