All Europe articles – Page 77
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Blog
Bankers Still Overpaid Despite Poor Performance
Deutsche Bank Chief Executive John Cryan said earlier this week that bonuses don’t necessarily make bankers work harder; instead some employees feel that they are entitled to an outsized incentive despite bad performance. Cryan’s message come weeks after a warning was issued at Deutsche Bank about rewarding staff with new-year ...
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Tax Evasion Problems at VW “Not Small”
German investigators have launched a new criminal probe into Volkswagen (VW) in light of the automaker’s recent emissions scandal. Prosecutors are examining five suspects who might be involved in this investigation.An Irish Times report said that prosecutors in Braunschweig are now investigating tax evasion allegations at the scandal-ridden German automaker. ...
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Jumping on the VW Amnesty Microbus
Image: Last week Volkswagen offered amnesty to employees who admit any role they played in the emissions-testing scandal currently wracking the company—no doubt drawing upon the success Siemens had when it made a similar offer to employees during a 2006 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation. Opinions differ on the move, ...
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Banks May Get More Time to Prepare for Financial Market Regulation
The EU is considering delaying the release of a comprehensive regulation that will overhaul financial market rules. The delay comes amid mounting concerns that the legislation’s accompanying technologies may not be ready in time for the January 2017 start date. Due to the complexity of the rule, banks and other ...
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U.K. SFO Drops Olympus Probe: Misleading Auditors Not a Crime
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office has dropped a two-year case against Japanese endoscope maker Olympus Corp., in the wake of a London court ruling that doctoring reports to auditors is not a criminal offence under English law. The move is a setback for SFO Director David Green, who has been ...
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FCA’s ‘Regulatory Sandbox’ to Drive Innovation and Competition
Image: The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is planning to unveil a “regulatory sandbox” for companies to test new products, services, or business models without facing enforcement actions. “To promote competition it is vital that we support firms—both regulated and unregulated, whether large incumbent or small start-ups—that want to bring new ...
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Europe and Petrobras—What Has a Car Wash Wrought?
Image: The scope of the Petrobras corruption scandal is literally worldwide. Now, reports the Financial Times, Rolls Royce has become embroiled in the Brazilian national energy company’s “Operation Car Wash” snafu (dubbed so because the investigation literally started with a car wash), and is currently under investigation by the ...
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U.K. Serious Fraud Office: ‘Why Engage At All?’
At a recent anti-bribery forum in London, Ben Morgan, joint head of bribery and corruption for the Serious Fraud Office, spoke about companies that have been prosecuted and investigated for bribery and corruption. Morgan pointed out that while no legislation is on the horizon to reward whistleblowers financially, ...
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Customers Expected to Stay With Big U.K. Banks Despite the CMA’s Move to Improve Competition
A report by research firm Pinset Masons and YouGov, reveals that 16 percent of customers would likely switch to a “challenger bank” like Metro or TSD within the next two years. These findings come after the British Competition Authority’s recommended the country’s biggest lenders to provide more information around ...
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CW Europe: A View From the U.K. Serious Fraud Office
Image: The general counsel of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, speaking at the Compliance Week Europe conference in Brussels this week, said the SFO hopes to have several deferred-prosecution agreements in place by the end of this year for companies the agency has been investigating for misconduct. Alun Milford provided no ...
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Britain’s Top Banks Escape Breaking Up; CMA Calls for More Clarity
Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has squashed the idea of breaking up some of the country’s largest banks in an effort to improve competition across the industry. After a thorough review, the CMA found that there’s no direct connection between free accounts and competition. Instead, the competition watchdog ...
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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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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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SFO Speeds Up Tesco’s Accounting Probe
The Serious Fraud Office has accelerated its probe into the accounting irregularities at Tesco, hoping to resolve the criminal investigation by year-end. The supermarket chain’s former chief executive Philip Clarke is one of many former Tesco executives being scrutinized by the agency in its investigation; Laurie McIlwee, former finance ...
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EU Pushes for More Tax Transparency Among Member States
The European Union passed a new law that will put an end to sweetened tax deals between member states and multinationals. Under the new legislation, member states will be required to swap information about special corporate tax deals twice per year with national tax authorities over an encrypted e-mail ...
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U.K. FCA: Senior Managers To Be ‘Whistleblower Champions’
Image: The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority is calling on senior managers to serve as “Whistleblower Champions” and to play a lead role in protecting employees who come forward with critical information about misconduct. The rules are part of the Senior Managers Regime, which is slated to go into effect ...
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EIOPA Requires ‘Robust’ Risk Management Framework
Image: The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) is backing the creation of a separate asset class for high-quality infrastructure investments under Solvency II. The EIOPA also stressed that insurers should have the proper due diligence and risk management procedures in place to tackle the complexities associated with this ...
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Compliance and Ethics Sputters at Volkswagen
Image: This week, anti-corruption blogger Tom Fox takes a closer look at the scandal involving Volkswagen and its diesel engine cars, intentionally designed to cheat emission standard testing through software nicknamed “defeat devices.” The world’s biggest carmaker admitted to U.S. watchdogs that it deliberately rigged computers in its cars ...
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BoE: More ‘Debate’ Around Tougher Capital Rules Needed
Image: The Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, is calling for debate around whether financial institutions should set aside more capital to help them weather any potential losses. “[Capital requirements] will be 10x higher than pre-crisis. Should they be higher still? Right question for tomorrow. We need that debate,” ...
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Google Facing Some Intense Heat in Europe
Image: European companies may now find it easier to file potential damages suits against Google, thanks to an independent platform calling on individuals and entities to proffer any civil claims regarding Google’s anticompetitive behavior. The “Google Redress and Integrity Platform” comes at a time when Google is facing several investigations ...