As federal regulators move toward adopting a final version of their 298-page proposed rule to restrict proprietary trading by banks, plenty of critics are warning about the unintended consequences to the financial markets that they say the Volcker Rule will inflict. In comment letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies, executives […]
Reese Darragh
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Second U.S. Company to Consider Adopting Proxy Access
Payment services company Western Union announced that it plans to offer a management bylaw proposal at its next annual meeting to allow investor groups who hold a 5 percent stake or more for a period of three years to nominate a candidate to the board. The proposal will appear in the management’s upcoming proxy statement, […]
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U.K. Mulls Binding Say-On-Pay Votes
Similar to say-on-pay votes in the United States, votes on executive compensation in Britain are advisory votes only, meaning that boards there are free to ignore them. But that could be changing in the near future. Earlier this week, Vice Cable, U.K. business secretary, told Parliament that the Cameron administration was considering a proposal to […]
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Warning: Compliance Causes Stress
Compliance officers have long known they have a difficult job that can be exceedingly stressful at times. Now they have empirical evidence. A recent study by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics has unearthed hard data on how stressful compliance and ethics jobs can be. Of nearly 1,000 compliance professionals surveyed by the SCCE, […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
CFPB Prepares for Regulatory Launch
Oh sure, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may have seen its first-ever director take office only three weeks ago—but the agency has done anything but sit around waiting for the last six months. The Obama Administration formally put Richard Cordray into the CFPB’s direct job on Jan. 5 via a recess appointment, after months of […]
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FDIC Proposes Stress Testing Rule
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved a proposed rulemaking notice on January 17 to require large insured depository institutions be the subject of an annual capital-adequacy stress tests. The test, as required under a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act will apply to FDIC-insured state non-member banks and FDIC-insured state-chartered savings associations with total assets of […]
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FDIC Approved Final Living Will Rule on Insured Depository Institution
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved the final rule on January 17 to require the covered insured depository institution (CIDI) with $50 billion assets or more to submit to the regulator periodic contingency plans for resolution in the event the institution faces bankruptcy. The new final rule is a complement to the separate joint rulemaking […]
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Study Finds Companies Increasingly Using Restricted Stock in Compensation
More Fortune 500 companies are increasing their use of full awards, time- and performance-based restricted shares, and stock-settled units, over other appreciation awards such as stock options and stock-settled appreciation rights when structuring their equity incentive practices, says a recent study by consulting firm Towers Watson. In the publication released on Jan. 16, the study […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Foreign Banks, Others Struggle to Prepare FATCA Compliance
Companies, including foreign banks and other institutions, continue to fret over compliance with the reporting requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, also known as FATCA. Now, a delay in the release of the proposed rules by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service has left tax experts and large […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Workplace Ethics on the Decline?
A Recent study of ethics at companies across the country reveals early warning signs of a potentially significant decline in ethics on the horizon. According to the National Business Ethics Survey conducted recently by the Ethics Resource Center, negative indicators include a sharp rise in instances of retaliation against employees who blow the whistle, more […]