A British court has decided to accept a plea bargain agreed upon by the Serious Fraud Office and corrupt construction company Mabey & Johnson, making the bridge-builder the first U.K. company to be convicted of foreign bribery. The ruling ends a case in which the SFO used new U.S.-style plea bargaining powers for the first […]
Global Glimpses
Posted inFrom the Archive
Swiss Regulator Probes UBS’ Governance
The Swiss stock exchange is investigating potential breaches of its corporate governance rules at UBS, the bank that just fourteen months ago overhauled its governance practices. SIX Exchange Regulation, which enforces compliance with Switzerland’s listing rules, is looking into possible breaches of its corporate governance directive in connection with UBS’ 2008 annual report. It is […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
U.K. to Review Ethics Rule
The body that sets ethical standards for U.K. auditors is about to review its rules on the non-audit services that firms can sell to their audit clients. The move comes amid the controversy of an “integrated financial assurance” deal that KPMG agreed with Rentokil Initial, a U.K-listed business services company. KPMG is taking over from […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Europe Leaves U.S. Out of Audit Oversight Deal
The European Commission has excluded the U.S. from a deal that will allow audit oversight bodies operating inside the European Union to share their working papers with professional supervisors in other countries. The deal will allow European audit oversight bodies to share information with their peers in Canada, Japan, and Switzerland, but not those in […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Serious Control Weaknesses Land Barclays $4.09m Fine
U.K. regulator the Financial Services Authority has fined Barclays, the banking group, $4.09 million for a series of internal control and compliance breaches and warned other firms it will not tolerate such failings. The FSA fined Barclays a “significantly higher” penalty than it had done in similar cases in the past because its failings were […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
South Africa Unveils New Governance Code
South Africa has published a new version of its code on corporate governance, to reflect changes to its company law and the lessons learned during the financial crisis. The third version of the King Report on Corporate Governance, named after lawyer and academic Mervyn King who led the project, includes a significantly revised chapter on […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Australia Overhauls Securities Regulation
The Australian government has published plans for a major overhaul of how the country’s financial markets are regulated. Australia’s individual financial markets will be stripped of the power to self-regulate market participants. Instead, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will become an all-powerful body responsible for supervision and enforcement across markets. “Having one whole-of-market […]
Posted inData Privacy
German Staff Snooping Law Makes Compliance Tougher
A new data protection law in Germany will make it harder for companies to implement anti-fraud and corruption controls that involve monitoring employees, according to law firm Clifford Chance. The amendment to the existing Federal Data Protection Act (known in German as the BDSG) follows a series of scandals in which high-profile German companies were […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
China to Enforce Monopoly Laws Soon
Time is running out for any companies trading in China that have not yet ensured they comply with the county’s anti-monopoly laws, according to a briefing from law firm Mayer Brown. China has done nothing to enforce its new monopoly laws to date, deciding instead to wait until government agencies have finalized guidance explaining how […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
FSA Clears Way for Greater Investor Scrutiny
UK regulator the Financial Services Authority has published guidance aimed at making it easier for shareholders to push companies to raise their governance standards. Institutional shareholders have been accused of not challenging companies about their corporate governance practices in the run up to the financial crisis. But they in turn have argued that gray areas […]
