All Rules & Proposals articles – Page 5
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Article
How to Simplify Cyber-Security Controls Amid Abundant Laws
By now every compliance officer has already heard the warning that it’s a matter of when you suffer a cyber-security breach, not if. Then comes compliance with breach disclosure rules—and those demands are becoming as perplexing as the cyber-threat itself. Overwhelmed, compliance officers are seeking ways to navigate these demands ...
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Article
U.S. Failures to Track Beneficial Owners Create AML Headaches Internationally
Image: Despite the forward march in Europe and elsewhere to fight money laundering, a problem remains: Here at the largest economy in the world, state incorporation laws in the United States create a massive loophole that bad actors can exploit. “It’s a huge problem not just for the United States ...
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Article
Rule Change to Ease Export Controls in the Cloud
Image: Good news: U.S. export control regulations may finally be catching up to modern cloud computing technology, with new rules to focus on keeping sensitive data secure rather than on where the data is stored. Defense and tech companies are likely to be beneficiaries, as they could now use cloud ...
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Article
EU AML Directive Fires Starting Pistol on Beneficial Owners Reform
European financial firms are preparing to implement new anti-money laundering rules that will require reporting about the real owners of the businesses they work with. The rules, intended to help EU governments pursue tax crimes and terrorist financing, “will increase the level of transparency across all transactions,” says Ambrose Loughlin ...
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Article
All the Questions Confronting Clawback Policy
The SEC has proposed a new rule that publicly traded companies adopt a clawback policy to recoup incentive-based compensation from executives that later turns out to be based on faulty financial statements. How hard can that be? Well, pretty hard, many compensation experts say. Inside, we have the run-down on ...
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Article
Drug, Device Companies Face New FDA Electronic Submissions
The Food and Drug Administration is overhauling how it accepts submissions for a host of filing requirements imposed on drug and medical device makers. For many, this will be the first time the submissions have ever been filed electronically. While the move away from paper documents may ultimately be advantageous ...
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Blog
Poll Portends Big Changes in Executive Pay Disclosure
A recent poll by Towers Watson hints at big changes to come in disclosure of executive compensation, in the wake of the SEC’s proposed pay-for-performance rules. One-third of poll respondents said they expect to change their compensation disclosure significantly; 55 percent said they expect to provide additional information and analysis ...
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Article
SEC Rule on Pay-for-Performance Triggers Criticism on TSR Metric
Image: The SEC’s proposed pay-for-performance rule would require companies to disclose the relationship between executive compensation and Total Shareholder Return. A simple and effective metric? Not everyone thinks so. “At first blush it’s intuitive: executives should win as shareholders win,” says Barry Sullivan of compensation consulting firm Semler Brossy. The ...
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Article
New ‘Blacklisting’ Rules Have Contractors in Uproar
Image: Uncle Sam is poised to impose sweeping new reporting obligations on government contractors to disclose labor law violations for the prior three years. Trade associations are spitting nails over the rules, but meanwhile, compliance officers have yet another reporting risk that needs process and attention. “You don’t want a ...
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Article
How Do You Solve a Problem Like EDGAR?
Image: In a way, the person who submitted false filings to the SEC last month proposing a fictional takeover of Avon Products did the corporate filing community a favor: He reminded everyone how bad the SEC’s EDGAR filing database can be. Ideas to modernize EDGAR are many; ability to achieve ...
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Article
Export Control Reform Still Lags, Leaving Compliance Programs in Lurch
Image: Anyone involved in international trade might hope that one day, in the long run, export control reform will alleviate the compliance burden companies face now. In the short run, however, expect even more pain as reform ideas inch along. “This is one of the most complex and changing environments ...
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Blog
How Dodd-Frank Is Working—and How It Isn’t
Image: Congress is back in session, which means another round of political bickering over reform of the Dodd-Frank Act. Alas, Compliance Week Editor Matt Kelly says, the law is already working as one would expect—that is, a little bit effectively, and a little bit stupidly. Compliance officers should not hold ...
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Blog
Former Commissioners Slam SEC for Inaction on Political Spending Rule
The latest push to get the SEC to act on a rulemaking petition that companies disclose political contributions and spending on lobbyists: pressure from former commissioners. “The Commission’s inaction is inexplicable,” William Henry Donaldson, Arthur Levitt, and Bevis Longstreth wrote in a letter to current SEC Chair Mary Jo White. ...
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Blog
SEC Proposes New Disclosures for Investment Companies
The SEC has proposed new rules and forms to modernize reporting for mutual funds, ETFs, and other registered investment companies. A new monthly portfolio reporting requirement, Form N-PORT, would require registered funds, other than money market funds, to provide portfolio-wide and position-level holdings data to the SEC. Details inside.
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Article
Dodd-Frank Reform: The Beat Goes On
The Dodd-Frank Act may be turning five years old this summer. Fights about Dodd-Frank, on the other hand, feel like they’ve been going on forever. Washington was back at it again last week, proposing various fixes, reforms, and exemptions to all manner of Dodd-Frank, much of it to help large-ish ...
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Article
Doing God’s Work: Compliance Reform at the Vatican Bank
Image: The Istituto per le Opere di Religione, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, suffered for decades from poor internal controls and conduct. How has the Holy See tried to recover? Slowly, surely, and with a risk-based approach following international standards. “The expectations are huge in building trust and confidence, ...
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Article
As SEC Delays on Extractive Payments, World Moves Ahead
The SEC has fought all sides on its proposed rule to disclose payments to governments for mining rights: oil and gas companies on one hand saying the rule is flawed; activists on the other saying the rule is overdue. The trouble, however, is that while the SEC tussles in court, ...
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Blog
SEC Approves Tick-Size Pilot Program
The SEC has approved a proposal by the national securities exchanges and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for a two-year pilot program that will widen the minimum quoting and trading increments, known as tick sizes, for stocks of some smaller companies. The program—to begin May 6, 2016—will include stocks of ...
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Blog
New Conflict Minerals Reporting Template Available
The Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative has published an update to its Conflict Minerals Reporting Template, a tool for tracing the use of conflict minerals in a company’s supply chain and validating smelters. CMRT 4.0, a free reporting template, expedites the identification of new smelters and refiners that may undergo an audit ...
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Article
Throwing Books & Records at ’Em
Image: Compliance officers responsible for accurate books and records and effective internal control over financial reporting may be entering a brave new world of regulatory enforcement. The SEC is stepping up its use of administrative proceedings to impose strict liability on even relatively minor infractions of securities law. “The SEC ...