Companies are showing improvement in risk management—but they’re not quite there yet. As recent problems at Walmart and JPMorgan indicate, companies still have more work to do on refining risk-management systems. And those high-profile cases have pushed companies to re-double their efforts. One of the top things companies are doing is to focus more on […]
Risk Management
Posted inInternal Controls
Best Buy Debacle Offers Lessons in Crisis Management
When Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn resigned suddenly in April over allegations of inappropriate personal conduct, it reminded many in Corporate America of the resignation of Mark Hurd from Hewlett-Packard, an episode widely considered to have been poorly handled by H-P’s board of directors. Yet now that the dust has settled on Best Buy’s CEO […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Electronic Information Deluge Putting a Strain on Records Management
Despite increased resources and good intentions, companies are still fumbling when it comes to executing a comprehensive information management program that balances the unique needs of physical and electronic documents. That’s the overarching conclusion of the latest Iron Mountain Compliance Benchmark Report, an analysis developed from more than 4,000 compliance risk assessments with input from […]
Posted inRisk Management
JPMorgan Loss Illustrates Difficulties of Adopting the Volcker Rule
When Troy Paredes, a commissioner on the Securities and Exchange Commission, addressed the audience at the “SEC Speaks” event in Washington D.C. earlier this year, he provided some insight into the difficulties of crafting the banking industry regulations against proprietary trading known as the Volcker Rule. “The notice of proposed rulemaking is lengthy, dense, and […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Maintaining an Effective Compliance Program
Companies everywhere know that demonstrating an effective compliance program is more important today than ever before. Where the real challenge lies is in assuring that the compliance department maintains the best structure possible as regulations change and as the business evolves. “One of the biggest challenges for compliance programs today, particularly some of your more […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Integrating Risk Appetite and Risk Management
JPMorgan Chase’s recent admission that a trader in London lost $2 billion trading in credit derivatives is yet another reminder of the importance of spelling out a company’s risk appetite and integrating it with risk-management practices. Three years after the financial crisis, it’s clear that companies are still struggling with how to manage risk in […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Recipe for Anti-Corruption Successes: Due Diligence, Diverse Messaging
On April 25, the big news in anti-corruption circles was that Morgan Stanley got in no trouble at all. he U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission on that date announced resolutions of their separate cases against Garth Peterson, a former managing director of the investment bank’s real estate investment and fund-advisory […]
Posted inInternal Controls, Risk Management
Enterprise GRC Systems: Ready When You Are
When Lamond Kearse became the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority’s first-ever chief compliance officer in 2004, the 68,000-employee organization had no compliance system at all. Today, information once buried in thick spreadsheets and Word docs is now just keystrokes away—or even pushed to Kearse’s attention automatically. The MTA’s experience is an example of an enterprise […]
Posted inAnti-Bribery
Finding FCPA Violations in Employee Expense Reports
Travel and entertainment expenses have long been a haven for fraud and abuse. Lately, however, companies have shifted their worries to whether there may be evidence of bribery or corruption hiding in employee expense reports. As the crackdown by U.S. officials on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act continues to intensify, companies have started […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
COSO Framework Overhaul Sparking Deeper Debates
COSO’s effort to update its famed, but 20-year-old, framework for managing internal controls has sparked a deeper debate this spring about how companies should approach internal control overall, and whether significant changes are in order. What the final answers might be remains anyone’s guess. COSO published a draft of the update to its 1992 Internal […]