Used to be that companies played games with their earnings numbers, backing a few million from the current quarter into last month to squeak out that earnings beat. Sure, that game will always be played, but there’s a new kind of fudging going on, particularly at big banks: fooling regulators into thinking you are taking […]
Joseph McCafferty
Posted inFrom the Archive
Time for Sensible Thinking on Easing Disclosure Overload
Corporate disclosure is a little like government spending: Nearly everyone agrees there’s too much of it, but it’s almost impossible to get anyone to agree on where to make the cuts. We all know that the entire system of financial reporting and disclosure is overwrought, burdensome on U.S. companies, and fraught with pages and pages […]
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
When Political Clout Bites Back
A few weeks ago, Chesapeake Energy decided to send its CEO and founder, Aubrey McClendon, on his merry way. The board’s decision to dump McClendon is the latest and largest of a series of moves to win back shareholders and bring the company back into the range of reasonable corporate governance standards from the shareholders-be-damned […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
If You Build It, They May Not Come
A new report out from Columbia Business School is likely making anyone involved in the corporate reporting process feeling like they just spent months building a ballpark in a cornfield, only to find that no one seems to be showing up. The report suggests that the massive and costly effort to attach identifying tags to […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Stuck in Regulatory Limbo
Here’s a question for compliance officers: How are preparations going for compliance with the Conflict Minerals Rule? What’s that? They are on hold pending a legal challenge to the rule? How about bank executives, are you ready for the Volcker Rule? Huh? You say you’re not because you still don’t know what the final version […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
The Costs and Benefits of Regulatory Cost-Benefit Analysis
The Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies are between Scylla and Charybdis—the original rock and a hard place of Greek mythology—when it comes to performing required cost-benefit analyses for the Dodd-Frank Act rules they are in charge of writing. Conduct too little analysis and the agencies leave themselves open to second-guessing by industry […]
Posted inAnti-Bribery
It’s Not Just the Crime or the Cover-up, It’s the Inaction
We all know the aphorism, “it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.” Organizations can take this one step further: even simply looking the other way when faced with evidence of a major problem is nearly as bad. This is especially true for potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Enforcement officials at the U.S. […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Eli Lilly Settles FCPA Charges, Agrees to Compliance Review
Eli Lilly reached an agreement with the SEC to settle charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. The drug company agreed to pay a civil settlement of $29.4 million and to have an independent compliance consultant conduct a 60-day review of the company’s internal controls and compliance program related to the FCPA. The settlement stems […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
SEC Chairman-to-Be Wants Changes to JOBS Act Plans
Elisse Walter, who will take over as chairman of the SEC in a few days, wants to include more investor protections in a JOBS Act provision that will lift the ban that keeps small companies from openly soliciting investors for private offerings or advertising the deals. In a speech last month during an SEC government-business […]