Shop Talk: How to Foster Strong Anti-Fraud Efforts

In our latest editorial roundtable, hosted with Crowe Horwath in Atlanta, we gathered compliance executives from Southern Co., Home Depot, UPS, and elsewhere to talk about fraud risks and what makes an anti-fraud compliance program effective. The full discussion is inside.

Mass. Privacy Law Begins

Corporate compliance, legal, and IT officers entered a brave new world last week, when Massachusetts’ far-reaching data privacy law finally took effect. Many businesses, however, “still need to get a better sense of what it means to reach compliance,” says Bradley MacDougall, associate vice president of government affairs for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

The Past, Present, and Future
of SEC Settlement Deals

The settlement between the SEC and Bank of America last month—notable because a federal judge rejected the pair’s first settlement as not harsh enough—underscores how difficult crafting a “good” settlement can be. Inside, we look at how current SEC settlements came to be, and what the future of SEC enforcement action might look like.

Testing Goodwill Impairment

Companies eyeing uncertain amounts of goodwill on the balance sheet face a difficult task right now when deciding whether to write it down: Accounting rules for testing impairment and the SEC’s preferred method for testing give conflicting answers. What to do? Some possible options are discussed inside.

USPS on Implementing SOX

In the latest of our conversations with compliance and governance experts, we talk with Steven Phelps, manager of the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance program underway at the U.S. Postal Service. Phelps talks about his role, compliance challenges, and how the Postal Service is fairing with SOX so far.

DoJ, SEC Step Up to Stop Fraud

Two months into 2010, the Justice Department and SEC are already on pace for yet another banner year of enforcement under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Inside, Compliance Week Columnist Bruce Carton recaps what the early FCPA enforcement actions mean for the rest of the year.

Boards’ Risk Oversight Principles

Boards have ample guidance on how to supervise companies’ risk management, but most of it tends to neglect a vital safeguard: investors’ capacity to judge the board’s effectiveness. Address that, say Compliance Week Columnists Stephen Davis and Jon Lukomnik, “and you get to the heart of the issue.”

Eli Lilly Creates Four New Ethics and Compliance Roles

Eli Lilly said it plans to create four new senior-level ethics and compliance positions as part of a deal to settle two shareholder lawsuits, stemming from the improper marketing of a handful of its drugs. More details are inside; full coverage of the proposed settlement will follow in our March 23 edition.

Poll: Cos. Preparing for IFRS

A recent KPMG poll of more than 2,000 executives found that many companies continue to move forward with plans to implement International Financial Reporting Standards, despite the SEC’s lack of a definite timeline. Twenty-six percent said they’re not changing their plans, while eight percent said they’re accelerating them.

IRS Targets Employment Tax

The Internal Revenue Service is launching a comprehensive study to determine how fully—or not—companies are complying with employment tax reporting and payment obligations. The IRS said it will conduct 2,000 random audits over each of the next three years. More details inside.

Report Spotlights CEO Pay

A preliminary analysis of 180 companies reveals that median total CEO bonus payouts fell 22 percent in fiscal year 2009, according to research firm Equilar. Median total payout fell from $882,105 in 2008 to $689,000 in 2009. More details on the report's findings are inside.

FSA Determined to Help SEC

Britain’s Financial Services Authority said it is committed to helping the SEC with overseas investigations, after winning an appellate court battle that aimed to block its efforts to obtain confidential evidence requested by the SEC. The victory gives new support to the SEC’s ability to obtain evidence outside of the United States.

New Guidance on Derivatives

FASB has published new guidance that aims to clarify how to treat embedded credit derivatives and hedging. FASB said it is releasing the guidance due to recent chaos within the credit markets that have created a flurry of questions and confusion among companies over derivative and hedging rules.

SEC Adds New XBRL FAQs

The SEC has published six new frequently asked questions related to its Interactive Data Disclosure rules. In addition, the Division of Corporation Finance has updated its interpretations to address changes triggered by the new proxy disclosure rule that took effect at the end of February.

New Anti-Bribery Guidance

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has issued new guidance on internal controls, ethics and compliance to help its 38 member countries put anti-bribery strategies into practice. “[T]his is an enormous step in ‘internationalizing’ the proactive approach of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines,” says Donna Boehme of Compliance Strategists.

U.K. Companies Urged to Disclose Diversity Plans

Government authorities in the U.K. are urging the Financial Reporting Council to require U.K.-listed companies to disclose what they are doing to get more women and “other under-represented groups” into senior management positions. The request comes at a time when the FRC is in the process of updating its governance code.