We often talk around here about the risks that corporations face from their third parties: resellers, distributors, venture partners and so forth. Typically that discussion is in the context of the Justice Department or Securities and Exchange Commission cracking down on the risk of bribery. Well, now the Federal Housing Administration is getting in on […]
Risk Management
Posted inRisk Management
Goldman Analysis: Lessons for CCOs
The fraud charges leveled against Goldman Sachs on Friday are—or more accurately, could be—a pivotal moment as the United States continues its long, slow extrication from the financial crisis. The 22-page complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission is almost too painful to read, filled with damning e-mail excerpts and fact patterns sure to […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
PwC Survey Highlights Shift in Internal Audit Focus
A recent annual survey on the state of the internal audit profession provides new evidence that internal auditors are looking to redefine their role in how organizations assess and manage their risks. A study of 2,000 internal auditors in late 2009 revealed assessing risk for the board of directors is among the more common activities […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
Risk Standard Comments Tread into PCAOB Process
As audit regulators review comments on their reworked proposal for seven new risk assessment standards, they’re also getting some pretty forthright advice on how to write audit rules. Even the U.S. Government Accountability Office has weighed in on where the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board may be inviting trouble with its latest attempt. The PCAOB’s […]
Posted inRisk Management
RiskMetrics Launches Successor to CGQs, Dubbed GRId
Companies and institutional investors take note: RiskMetrics Group is launching the successor to its Corporate Governance Quotient on proxy research reports, dubbed Governance Risk Indicators (GRId). Instead of scoring companies on governance relative to their industry and index as with CGQs, the new methodology will give an absolute score based on an assessment of four […]
Posted inRisk Management
RMG Posts FAQs on Policies and New Proxy Disclosure
RiskMetrics Group has published some guidance for companies, in the form of three frequently asked questions, about how its voting policies may apply to some of the disclosures required under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new proxy disclosure rule. The rule adopted by the SEC in December, which includes new disclosure about risk-management oversight, “risky” […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
SEC’s Schapiro Details What’s Ahead For 2010
More crisis-related cases and more rulemaking, lots of it, are on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s agenda in the months ahead, according to the agency’s chairman. Highlighting some of the recent mortgage-related, pay-to-play cases, accounting fraud, and insider-trading cases brought by the SEC, its chairman, Mary Schapiro, promised more to come. “The pipeline is full […]
Posted inRisk Management
What’s Worrying Risk Officers in Financial Sector
Last week I had the privilege again of hosting a Compliance Week editorial roundtable, this time gathering a dozen chief risk officers in the financial sector to hear their thoughts on the current challenges of risk management in their industry—which are more complicated than the risk management challenges in most other industries. As usual, we’ll […]
Posted inRisk Management
SEC Posts C&DIs on Proxy Disclosure Enhancements
Consider it a holiday gift from the Securities and Exchange Commission: The staff of the Division of Corporation Finance has posted new guidance for companies on transitioning to the recently approved proxy disclosure enhancements rule. The five new Compliance & Disclosure Interpretations posted Dec. 22 comprise the staff’s interpretations of how the rule’s effective date […]
Posted inAccounting & Auditing
PCAOB Revamps 7-Standard Package on Risk Assessment
Based on initial comments to seven proposed standards on assessing and responding to risk, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has reworked the package and is asking for public comment on the revisions. The board unanimously approved the revisions suggested by the staff of Chief Auditor Marty Baumann and agreed to put them out for […]