The Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 17 announced that Bank of New York Mellon will pay more than $54 million to settle charges of improper handling of “pre-released” American Depositary Receipts (ADRs).

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...