European Parliament last week agreed to continue its share of funding for international accounting standards groups, but attached conditions to the funding on the governance of the groups as well as on the standards themselves. Members of Parliament approved the European Commission’s co-funding package for the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation, the European Financial […]
Roberta Holland
Posted inEurope
Tougher EU AML Rules Include Owner Registries, More Due Diligence
Companies and trusts will have to list their ultimate beneficial owners in public registers, under tighter anti-money laundering (AML) regulations approved by European Parliament this week. Banks, auditors, lawyers, and real estate agents also must monitor their clients better to watch for suspicious transactions, under the AML directive approved by parliament. The goal behind the […]
Posted inEurope
Proposed Data Protection Reforms Include Stiff Penalties for Violators
Companies violating the European Union’s new data protection laws would face fines of up to €100 million, according to the provisions of a sweeping reform package approved by European Parliament this week. The stiffer corporate penalties are part of the data protection overhaul, which members of parliament said was desperately needed to bring the law […]
Posted inEurope
Proposed EU Conflict Minerals Law Lacking Teeth, Critics Say
The European Commission this week released its proposed conflict minerals law amid criticism the proposal is too weak and narrow to be effective. Conflict minerals are those that are mined under conditions of armed conflict or human rights abuses, such as forced labor, and mainly come from the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of […]
Posted inEurope
Commission Adopts New Standards to Tighten EU Bonus Cap on Bankers
In an attempt to harmonize new bonus cap rules, the European Commission this week approved new standards for determining which employees qualify as “material risk takers” in banks and investment firms in the European Union. So-called material risk takers are employees whose work has a material impact on an institution’s risk profile. The Regulatory Technical […]
Posted inAnti-Bribery
U.K. Bribery Charges in the Offing for France’s Alstom
Bloomberg News reported last week that French train manufacturer Alstom SA will be charged with violating U.K. bribery laws following a five-year investigation, citing two sources with knowledge of the investigation. The sources, who requested anonymity, told the news outlet that the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office may seek charges to be approved by the attorney […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Subjective Reporting of Exceptional Items Clouding True Profitability of FTSE 100
Non-financial FTSE 100 companies are subjectively reporting exceptional items, with a majority reporting underlying earnings that exceed unadjusted operating profits, according to a new report by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. The report, released 18 Feb., reviewed the annual reports for the last four years of 82 non-financial companies in the FTSE 100 index. Standard […]
Posted inEurope
U.K. Issues New Sentencing Guidelines for Corporate Fraud
The Sentencing Council for England and Wales has published a new sentencing guideline for corporate fraud, which can be used as a reference for judges as they begin to use deferred prosecution agreements for the first time. The guideline applies to organizations convicted of fraud, money laundering, and bribery, on or after 1 Oct. 2014. […]
Posted inEurope
New EU AML Regulations Take Risk-Based Approach
The European Union is updating its anti-money laundering (AML) regulations to take a more risk-based approach, lower by half the threshold that triggers AML procedures, and provide better transparency regarding the true owners of entities. The European Commission last week adopted two proposals toward that end, its fourth AML directive and a complementary regulation on […]
Posted inEurope
Mandatory Jail Sentences Await Financial Markets Manipulators in the EU
European legislators this week approved mandatory jail sentences of at least four years for individuals convicted of serious market manipulation and insider dealing offenses. European Parliament overwhelmingly passed the new regulation on Tuesday during its plenary session, which would require judges imposing a country’s maximum penalty for market abuse offenses to include at least four years […]