All Europe articles – Page 78
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Blog
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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Blog
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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Blog
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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Blog
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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Blog
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 ...
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Blog
Banks Fear EU Privacy Rules Will Make Fraud Harder to Detect
Image: Bankers are claiming new EU privacy laws may end up doing more harm than good, as they will prevent banks from detecting fraud and terrorist financing. Consumer rights groups disagree, arguing that the updated laws will pave the way for more transparency and force banks to behave more responsibly ...
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Blog
Podcast: Conducting Internal Investigations in Europe
Image: In light of increased enforcement activities across Europe, particularly increased enforcement cooperation among foreign jurisdictions and around the world, European corporations are subjected to overlapping and often similar—but not identical—regulatory requirements. In our latest podcast, we talk to Tiffany Moseley, partner in Kaye Scholer’s litigation practice, about internal investigations ...
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Blog
Banks Are Concerned Over New EU Bonus Rules
Image: New EU legislation covering banker pay that will be applied across all member states is causing some rift in the industry. Wim Mijs, chief executive of the European Banking Federation, said the rules may lead to a “heavy administrative burden.” He is calling on the European commissioner responsible for ...
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Blog
PetroBras Denies Potential FCPA Settlement
Image: Last week PetroBras said in an SEC filing that it is not working with U.S. regulators to end the long list of corruption charges leveled against the company. That statement is merely the latest in a long list of unusual events in the compliance spectacle that PetroBras has become, ...
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Blog
U.K. Banks on the Lookout for Civil Claims in Forex Scandal
The foreign markets manipulation debacle may drag on, with no end in sight. In the wake of a recent landmark legal settlement where top banks, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, and Barclays, agreed to a £1.28 billion settlement in the rate-rigging scandal, lawyers and analysts are warning it’s ...
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Blog
ECB Delays Review of Banks’ Risk Models
The European Central Bank has extended its review of banks’ internal risk models up to four years. The banking supervisor plans on conducting a thorough examination on how some of the Eurozone’s biggest banks are calculating its capital. Deutsche Bank, Santander, and Société Générale are some of the financial institutions ...
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Blog
U.K. Financial Regulator Explains the New Accountability Rules
Image: The Financial Conduct Authority released “near final rules” which shows how it will apply the new accountability regimes that hold employees accountable for misconduct in U.K. branches of overseas banks. These rules further explain the FCA’s accountability reform announcement last month that zeroes in on top executives at U.K. ...
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Blog
The Current State of the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office
Image: Britain’s Serious Fraud Office appears to be under intense pressure, amid the announcement that another part of the government, led by International Development Secretary Justine Greening, is launching a new specialized anti-corruption unit to investigate cases of international corruption affecting developing countries. While the SFO achieved a significant victory ...
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Blog
Standard Chartered Bolsters Its Financial Crime Unit Amid Regulatory Trouble
Standard Chartered is adding more staff to its financial crimes team, following a probe by U.S. regulators for an alleged breach in sanctions laws that resulted in a $400 million fine in 2012. In its first-half results announced last week, the bank said, “There is a range of potential penalties ...
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Blog
Report: U.K. Regulator’s Victory in the Libor Scandal
Image: Tom Hayes, once a “star trader” at UBS and Citigroup and the first to stand trial in the Libor scandal, has been charged with eight counts of conspiracy to manipulate Libor and will serve 14 years in prison. This case serves as a major turning point for the U.K. ...
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Resource
Google EU User Consent Policy: Are You Compliant?
Google recently announced it will be implementing a new user consent policy. Essentially, this new policy requires all websites serving EU visitors, including those not based in the European Union, to comply with the EU Cookie Directive.The EU Cookie Directive has led to a concerted effort by regulators to set ...
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Banks Need to Manage Risks Better, U.K. Regulator Says
Image: A review by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority found that banks need to take the risks associated with benchmark rates more seriously. FCA believes that financial institutions should learn from the recent scandals that rocked the industry and ensure that such misconduct does not happen again. The watchdog says ...
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Blog
Europe Faces Growing Criticism Over Sacked CEOs
The movement of executives at top financial institutions is back in the spotlight but this time the action is in Europe. Following the 2008-09 financial crisis banks were losing their chief executives faster than many expected. Now with post-meltdown regulatory reforms in full force, the turnover rate among executives has ...
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Blog
SFO in Talks With Barclays to End Long-Running Criminal Probe
The Serious Fraud Office has extended a deferred-prosecution agreement to Barclays to end an investigation into the bank’s alleged role in the £2 billion Qatari 2008 fundraising and other practices that helped the bank weather the financial crisis. British regulators recently gained the power to issue DPAs, and the SFO ...