All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 721
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Blog
Merrill Lynch Fined £13.2 million ($19.8 million) for 35 Million Compliance Lapses
Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority fined Merrill Lynch International a record £13.2 million ($19.8 million) for inaccurately reporting more than 30 million transactions and for failing to report another 120,000 transactions over several years. The size of the fine marks the highest ever imposed for transaction reporting failures. Details inside.
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Blog
Gazprom Faces Antitrust Trouble in Europe
The European Commission plans to file formal antitrust charges against Gazprom, as the Russian energy giant is suspected of abusing its power in the natural gas sector by preventing some countries—such as Lithuania and Poland—from re-exporting gas they purchased from the company. If the Commission succeeds, Gazprom will face a ...
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Blog
EU to Postpone Capital Rules on EU Banks
The European Union is again planning to postpone new capital rules on EU banks to hold more capital when trading derivatives with unapproved foreign exchanges. In response to the financial crisis, the United States formulated its own trading guidelines without giving European regulators sufficient opportunity to weigh in, experts say. ...
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Blog
BofA Deputy General Counsel Joins Moore & Van Allen
Ed O’Keefe, deputy general counsel and global legal operations executive of Bank of America, will be joining the litigation practice group of law firm Moore & Van Allen in May. Details inside.
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Blog
FDIC Mulls New Recordkeeping Requirements for Big Banks
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is considering new recordkeeping requirements for the nation’s largest banks to streamline the process for reimbursing insured depositors should one of them fail. New recordkeeping standards would likely apply to banks with more than $2 million in account value. Details inside.
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Blog
New Guidance for Healthcare Compliance Oversight
An unusual coalition of compliance and audit professional associations has joined forces with federal healthcare regulators to publish new guidance on how healthcare organizations can carry out their oversight responsibilities. The guidance is intended for internal auditors, compliance, and legal executives that report to those boards, and carries the blessing ...
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Blog
2014 Restatements Show Further Declines
Restatement data for 2014 suggest companies are getting better at financial reporting—producing fewer erroneous reports, with less damaging effects, and correcting mistakes more quickly when they find them, the latest report from Audit Analytics shows. Contrary to all the good news, however, restatements among accelerated filers are not falling. More ...
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Article
Sentencing Commission Shifts Focus on Fraud Punishments
The U.S. Sentencing Commission has adopted new sentencing guidelines for financial fraud, heaping more punishment on masterminds but reducing penalties for others who might be lower-level minions in such frauds. The change has provoked mixed emotions in the legal community. Some welcome the new flexibility extended to judges as they ...
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Article
Conflict Minerals: From Compliance to Risk Management
Image: As a June 1 deadline nears for companies’ second year of conflict minerals compliance, some might consider life beyond the next Form SD filing to a broader risk management program for suppliers. It can be done, particularly with the OECD’s framework for conflict minerals due diligence. “The entire rule ...
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Blog
FBI Agent David Makol Rejoins SEC as Forensic Accountant
Back in 2012, I recommended a "must-read" article by WSJ reporters Susan Pulliam, Michael Rothfeld and Jenny Strasburg about FBI agent David Makol. The article provided some fascinating insight into the tactics that Makol, then the FBI's go-to guy for "flipping" suspects in insider trading investigations, used so successfully in ...
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Blog
KPMG Elects New Chairman and CEO
KPMG has elected Lynne Doughtie to serve as its next chairman and chief executive officer, for a five-year term starting July 1. Doughtie currently leads KPMG’s Advisory business. Details inside.
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Article
Buying Time With Revenue Standard Delay
Image: FASB might delay implementation of the new revenue recognition standard; corporate financial reporting executives should not. Despite uncertainty on fine points of the standard and business software yet to digest FASB’s seachange in reporting revenue, businesses can do plenty now. “The deferral is telling companies don’t delay in assessing ...
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Article
Cleaning Up FCPA Cases That Spill Into Litigation
Image: Companies under investigation for possible violations of the FCPA have more than enforcement action to worry about; they must be prepared to fend off shareholder lawsuits as well. That requires some careful strategy about how to investigate FCPA allegations and document them. “I can’t tell you how often I ...
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Article
Still Working on Culture After All These Years
Five years ago, the Dodd-Frank Act imposed new rules governing everything from derivatives trades and mortgage lending to disclosures about executive compensation and conflict mineral usage. Have all those requirements really helped companies master a stronger ethical culture? Inside, we look at what steps some companies have taken to promote ...
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Better Ways for Boards to Care About Reputation Risk
Reputation risk is never far from a board’s mind, and rightly so. That doesn’t necessarily mean boards should make management of reputation risk their first priority—despite many examples of reputation failures leading to catastrophe. Rather, Compliance Week columnist Rick Steinberg writes, boards need to obsess over culture and operational details ...
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Blog
Tilting Toward IFRS Experiments in the U.S.
Last December, SEC officials raised yet again the idea of letting U.S. companies file financial data—just a bit, on a voluntary basis—according to International Financial Reporting Standards. The proposal was the latest in a long discussion about whether to let U.S. businesses adopt IFRS. This week, Compliance Week columnist Robert ...
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Blog
White Defends Subpoenaing ISPs for E-Mails
Image: The SEC has long opposed efforts to modernize the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, fearing it could lose the ability to subpoena internet service providers for e-mails. Although ISP subpoenas are currently on hold, privacy concerns could harm investigations, Chairman Mary Jo White told a Congressional sub-committee.
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Blog
IASB Considers Deferral for Revenue Recognition Standard
Now that the new revenue recognition standard is likely to be delayed by a year in the United States, the International Accounting Standards Board is recommending a delay until Jan. 1, 2018, for those who file under International Financial Reporting Standards. “We think that it is less confusing for the ...