Appointment Blogs | Compliance Week – Page 252
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Sevan Marine Self-Reports Bribery Probe
Sevan Marine, a technology and engineering company, announced last week that it has handed over to Norwegian authorities the results of an internal investigation report regarding potential bribes paid to Petrobras to obtain business. Additionally, it has initiated contact with the relevant prosecutors’ offices in the United States, the ...
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How Audit Committees Really Think About Risk
Image: Enterprise risk management is a hot subject in boardrooms across America these days, with big consequence for corporate compliance and audit professionals. Still, do audit committees have a clear sense of how they want to approach risk and risk management? Compliance Week editor Matt Kelly decided to look at ...
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Cost of Corruption: Now the Short-Sellers Are Here
The costs of corruption come in many forms, not the least being painfully high penalties from regulators and lawsuits from unhappy shareholders. Now a new front has opened: Muddy Waters, a short-seller firm pressuring Swedish telecom company TeliaSonera, is accusing it of bribery in central Asia—and benefitting as the stock ...
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U.K. Government Curbs Senior Managers Regime
The U.K’s Finance Ministry is scrapping a key part of the Senior Managers Regime that demanded senior managers prove that they took the necessary steps to prevent employee misconduct. Instead, a new “duty of responsibility” clause will require senior managers to take only the appropriate steps to prevent a regulatory ...
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Darden Appoints General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Darden Restaurants has named Matt Broad, former chief compliance officer at OfficeMax, as general counsel and corporate secretary, effective as of Oct. 13. In this role, Broad assumes responsibility for all legal affairs, including corporate governance, labor and employment law, development law, litigation and regulatory compliance. More inside.
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Survey: Boards Hate Pay Ratio Rule, Cool With Clawbacks
Not surprisingly, most board members remain unconvinced that the pay ratio disclosure rule enacted by the SEC is worth the paper it is printed on, according to a survey by BDO USA. An SEC proposal requiring the disclosure of communications between the audit committee and the external auditor was similarly ...
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PCAOB Issues Fresh Warnings on Risk
Image: The PCAOB has issued a report describing the deficiencies it sees in how audit firms implement and comply with risk assessment standards. “Because risk assessment underlies the entire audit process, it is critical that audit firms address these findings of weaknesses in compliance with the risk assessment standards,” said ...
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Comm. Aguilar: 'Conscientious' Directors Should Not Fear SEC
Image: In a recent speech, SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar stated that although the SEC does occasionally file cases against directors of public companies, “the vast majority of directors are embracing their responsibilities and are fulfilling them conscientiously. These directors should have nothing to fear from the SEC.” Aguilar said that ...
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Pro Forma Reporting Tasked in Brisk M&A Market
A robust M&A market along with pro forma financial reporting rules have made it challenging for companies to comply with reporting requirements. New guidance from EY is meant to help companies know what pro forma financial information to present in SEC filings, which SEC forms require pro forma financial information, ...
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NACD: Boards Need Strategy to Align Short-Term, Long-Term Goals
A growing concern in governance circles is whether the desire to meet or beat quarterly earnings can be aligned with long-term business strategy. The National Association of Corporate Directors addresses that dilemma in a new report that urges boards to steer management to long-range planning efforts through compensation and incentive ...
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Clawbacks, Other Reforms Drive Better Pay Disclosure
A new study from Deloitte finds that FTSE 100 companies have dramatically improved their disclosures around executive pay in recent years, probably in no small part due to new clawback provisions and other governance requirements adopted lately. (New regulations on pay disclosure were rolled out last year, such as a ...
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Podcast: AML Compliance in the Netherlands
Image: In this week’s podcast, Leon Blonk, regional compliance officer at the Bank of China, discussed the current state of anti-money laundering compliance in the Netherlands and what companies should consider when conducting business in this part of Europe. According to Transparency International, the Netherlands ranked eighth in its latest ...
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Transforming the Cyber-Security Paradigm
Though data breaches are inevitable, companies still remain too focused on fortification rather than response, failing to adopt to the harsh realities of rapidly emerging international and multifarious cyber-security threats. Inside, columnist John Reed Stark recommends a three-step cyber-security transformation for companies to undertake to combat recent rapidly evolving cyber-dangers.
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Surviving the Jolt of the Yates Memo
An earthquake in the world of FCPA enforcement happened in September, when “the Yates Memo” arrived and heralded a new era of pursuing individuals responsible for corporate misconduct. This week, columnist Tom Fox dissects some of the implications for compliance officers—including the threat that from here forward, the interests of ...
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How Will Schrems Ruling Affect FCPA Compliance in Europe?
Image: The Schrems decision last week invalidated the safe harbor provision that let U.S. companies ferry personal data back and forth from Europe. Already compliance officers are beginning to sweat the implications of that ruling for anti-corruption programs. First likely headache: hotline data. Tom Fox, our Man From FCPA, has ...
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After 12 Years, Moving on From Compliance Week
Image: Matt Kelly has been in the news business in one form or another since he was 11, so to deliver a strong lead: He is stepping down as editor and publisher of Compliance Week at the end of the year. This week, he shares a few thoughts on the ...
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CAQ Echoes Regulatory Warnings for Year-End Audits
Image: The Center for Audit Quality has issued an alert to auditors advising where they should focus their audit attention this year. First up is professional skepticism and internal control over financial reporting, followed closely by risk assessments, cyber-security, revenue recognition, and related parties. “These alerts reflect the public company ...
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Kaiser Permanente Names National Compliance and Privacy Officer
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has named Vanessa Benavides as senior vice president and chief compliance and privacy officer, effective Nov. 9. She will work in transition with Daniel Garcia, who will retire as chief compliance and privacy officer later this year. More inside.
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Is FIFA Getting Serious About Ethics Reform?
FIFA seems to be getting serious about the perception that its organization is rife with corruption. Last week it suspended three of its top officials, including President Sepp Blatter. Those suspensions come one week after major sponsors demanded FIFA take action. Our Man From FCPA, Tom Fox, has more inside.
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Cosi Blames Decline in Q3 Sales on Pope
Last week, in an effort to explain third quarter sales that were down slightly from sales reported in the third quarter of 2014, the restaurant Cosi pointed the finger at an unlikely figure: the Pope!