The titans of Corporate America might grab all the headlines in their dealings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but take heart, non-accelerated filers—the SEC has some words of wisdom for you, too. The agency’s Division of Corporation Finance has published its latest batch of guidance for small filers, a 54-slide summary of filing errors […]
Karen Kroll
Posted inUncategorized
Delays Raise Uncertainties in Food Safety Compliance
Food companies are preparing for compliance with the most sweeping industry safety reforms since 1938—except that, as compliance officers hear a lot these days, delays in adopting final rules are leaving them unsure how to proceed. The rules stem from the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law last year in response to several notorious […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Regulatory Changes at Record Levels
The pace of regulatory change is speeding up, with a record level of new and amended rules issued in 2011—and even more likely to come in 2012. Last year, financial regulators around the globe initiated more than 14,000 regulatory events—everything from final rules to speeches indicating potential shifts in agencies’ direction—according to a recent study […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Companies Prepare for ‘Sunshine Provisions’ of Health Reform
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finally released its proposed rule on what’s commonly referred to as the “Sunshine provision,” of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which will create new reporting requirements for pharmaceutical and medical products companies. The provision (Section 6002) adds a section to the Social Security Act that […]
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
Proxy Access Moves Forward at Two Companies
While many companies applauded the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision not to pursue mandatory proxy access after losing a bitter court battle last summer, some companies are actually putting forth their own proposals to allow shareholders the right to nominate directors directly on the proxy. Western Union and KSW Inc. advanced management-backed proposals to allow […]
Posted inRisk Management
Getting a Grip on ‘People Risk’
At the end of the day, compliance failures usually boil down to something done wrong by people. Little surprise, then, that one rapidly rising concern these days is, well, people risk. So says the Conference Board, which published a report recently that ranked people risk—“human capital risk,” in consulting argot—fourth out of 11 among the […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
How Tyco Manages Third-Party Risk
Tyco International takes great care to ensure that it does not hang out with the wrong crowd. The $17 billion provider of security, fire safety, and a multitude of other products and services works with more than 32,000 outside parties: resellers, distributors, and other partners. It must monitor all of them to ensure that they […]
Posted inUncategorized
Dodd-Frank Heaps New Requirements on Broker-Dealers
Over the past few years, regulators have added scores of new compliance requirements for broker-dealer firms, including the regulations outlined in several sections of the Dodd-Frank Act. In an industry that is populated with a few giants and thousands of dwarfs, some are wondering if that one-size-fits-all approach of regulators puts too much of a […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
Bill Would Require Publicly Held Companies to Disclose Political Spending
In 2010, in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that “prohibition on corporate independent expenditures is an outright ban on speech,” according to this syllabus from Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute. As a result, companies have been able to contribute to political campaigns. Yesterday, several legislators introduced a law […]
Posted inFrom the Archive
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Outlines Its Big Bank Supervision Plans
Last Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created by the Dodd-Frank Act, offered a peek into its plans for supervising banks with assets of more than $10 billion, as well as their subsidiaries and affiliates. The bank supervision program will begin next week, on July 21, 2011. Not surprisingly, the bureau will examine the […]
