News

Here’s what we know: You have a mandate to upgrade your compliance technology, at least some budget to do it, and sky-high expectations for improved operational efficiency and robust data reporting. At least that’s what the results of our compliance technology survey tell us. Are we close?

The PCAOB has handed BDO USA another scathing inspection report, finding 67 percent of the audits examined in 2016 failed to comply with standards.

This latest installment of the Compliance Week/OCEG GRC Illustrated series explores how fraudsters are using high-end real estate to launder money.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has awarded nearly $4 million to an overseas whistleblower whose “extensive assistance” helped it bring a successful enforcement action, the agency announced on Sept. 24.

Critics of proxy advisory firms are cheering the withdrawal of 2004 no-action letters that they say empowered and entrenched the firms.

Deutsche Bank has become the fourth bank in the past month to get into regulatory trouble for having lax anti-money laundering controls in place, joining Danske Bank, ING, and Credit Suisse.

As it so often is in the world of financial services, FinTech evangelists want rule streamlining and deregulation. Is that the right approach?

Unraveling an accounting simplification, companies are returning to an older way to account for software costs associated with certain cloud computing arrangements.

Alun Milford, general counsel for the U.K. Serious Fraud Office, will be leaving the agency to join law firm Kingsley Napley as a partner.

The time has come to reform America’s stock markets. That was the message from SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson during a speech this week at George Mason University, where he laid out potential changes. 

The SEC will be looking for increasingly detailed disclosures to investors about the expected effects of moving to a new method for recognizing credit losses.

Tax departments need to tool up to be ready for the kinds of tax planning that will occur in the coming 12 months, especially under tax reform, survey says.

The last time the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority attempted to break up what is widely referred to as an oligopoly of the audit market by the Big Four audit firms—EY, PwC, Deloitte and KPMG—its actions had the opposite effect. 

A recent study from corruption watchdog Transparency International rates countries on their enforcement processes, or lack thereof, under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

Argent Trust Company has named Deanna Rankin chief compliance officer.

Public Citizen’s Bartlett Naylor advises careful consideration of current crowdfunding rules before considering a cap raise.

Attorney Douglas Ellenoff discusses why raising the crowdfunding cap boosts the fundraising method’s benefits.

Investor confidence in auditors and in capital markets in general fell in 2018, according to the annual poll by the Center for Audit Quality.

As part of a public comment process that reached its deadline on Sept. 15, the SEC has collected ideas and opinions on proposed changes to its whistleblower program. We took a look at some of the responses.

The chief executive of Denmark’s biggest financial institution has resigned following the publication of a report that highlights large-scale money laundering in the bank’s Estonian operations. 

As audit firms disclose who performs public company audits, gender diversity is emerging as the first major concern regarding audit engagement leadership.

AXA Equitable Life, a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of financial services company AXA Equitable Holdings has promoted Aaron Sarfatti to chief risk officer, effective Oct. 1.

SeaWorld Entertainment and its former CEO have agreed to pay a total of more than $5 million to settle fraud charges for misleading investors about the impact the documentary film Blackfish had on the company’s reputation and business, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA has concluded two enforcement procedures against Credit Suisse. In the first procedure, FINMA identified deficiencies in the bank’s adherence to anti-money laundering due diligence obligations. The second procedure relates to a significant business relationship for the bank with a politically exposed person.

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau weakens, state agencies—mini-CFPBs if you will—may step up to fill the void.