All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 731
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Blog
SEC Trial Scorecard Update: Jury Returns Mixed Verdict in Willie Gault Case
After a verdict-free period that spanned three months, my SEC Trial Scorecard is finally back in action to report on yesterday's verdict in the SEC's case against former NFL wide receiver Willie Gault. This running SEC Trial Scorecard tracks the SEC's trials and outcomes for FY 2015. To date ...
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Blog
Successor to ECOA Will Launch Certification Effort
More news from the groups formerly known as the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association and the Ethics Resource Center: The two have been subsumed into a new “Ethics & Compliance Initiative,” which has spawned a third wing, the Ethics & Compliance Certification Institute, to certify compliance professionals. More inside.
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Blog
European Commission Unveils Tax Transparency Package
Image: The European Commission has unveiled a package of legislative proposals that it hopes will hinder abusive tax practices and aggressive tax planning, by providing greater transparency on what companies pay and where. “Tolerance has reached rock bottom for companies that avoid paying their fair share of taxes, and for ...
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Blog
Justice Department Extends Biomet DPA
The Department of Justice will extend for an additional year a deferred-prosecution agreement reached in 2012 with Biomet, after the medical device maker self-reported additional potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The three-year DPA, which would have expired March 26, 2015, will now expire on March 26, 2016. ...
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Blog
British Regulator Slaps Bank of Beirut With A Hefty Fine
Image: Title: PhilippouBritish regulators are taking action after two former Bank of Beirut employees misled the Financial Conduct Authority about whether the bank had complied with orders to boost its financial crime protections. The bank was fined £2.1 million and is temporarily banned from “acquiring new customers from high-risk” locations. ...
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Blog
Two Common Misperceptions About Risk Management
The “Three Lines of Defense” theory to risk management is very much in vogue today, along with maturity models to understand how strong your risk management program is. This week, columnist Rick Steinberg takes both ideas to task. The three lines concept too often paints risk as something to be ...
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Article
Mitigating FCPA Risks in Pharma, Med Device Sectors
Image: SEC Enforcement Director Andrew Ceresney recently dropped new hints on FCPA risks for pharma and medical devices, plus suggestions on how to avoid those risks. “Our FCPA focus obviously covers many industries,” he said. “But the pharma industry is one on which we have been particularly focused in recent ...
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Blog
FinCEN Advisory Addresses Jurisdictions With AML Deficiencies
The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network this week issued guidance in response to the Financial Action Task Force’s updated list of jurisdictions with Anti–Money Laundering and Counter–Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) deficiencies. “Financial institutions should consider these changes when reviewing their enhanced due diligence obligations and risk–based policies, procedures, and practices ...
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Article
Preparing Your Board for Cyber-Security Oversight
Every board knows its company will fall victim to a cyber-attack and, worse, that the board will need to clean up the mess and superintend the fallout. This week, guest columnist John Stark, a long-time student of cyber-security risks, breaks down the fundamentals any board must establish for cyber-security, and ...
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Article
Momentum Grows for Small Companies & Capital Markets
The SEC is exploring new ways to fulfill its mission to facilitate capital formation for small- and medium-sized companies. While uncertainty still surrounds capital formation efforts included in the JOBS Act, momentum is growing to revisit the SEC’s traditional definition of an accredited investor, and to create new “venture exchanges” ...
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Blog
Big 4 Lose Audits to Smaller Firms in 2014, Data Shows
Big 4 firms lost a combined 64 public company audit engagements in 2014 as second-tier national firms snatched up a combined 58 new clients, according to Audit Analytics. The company’s annual summary of auditor changes says KPMG is the only Big 4 firm to win more new engagements than it ...
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Article
Audit Voices Try to Calm Tensions on Evidence
Image: Leaders of the auditing world are calling for a truce in arguments between internal and external auditors over how much evidence external auditors should collect themselves while scrutinizing internal controls—and are calling on audit committees to intervene earlier to prevent such disputes. “Essential value will be lost if external ...
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Article
Blurred Lines: How to Handle Informal SEC Communications
When the SEC sends a formal inquiry into your company’s operations, you know you have a problem to be handled in strict ways. So what about when the SEC delivers an “informal” request—and all those speeches and opinions, for that matter, that can sound an awful lot like formal guidance ...
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Blog
Unified Compliance Unveils Common Controls Hub
Unified Compliance has announced the general availability of its Common Controls Hub built on the Unified Compliance Framework. This new, dynamic portal gives users rapid access to its massive data repository of more than 90,000 individual mandates from 800-plus laws and standards from around the globe. Details inside.
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Blog
EXIGER Launches Automated Due Diligence Tool for AML Compliance
EXIGER, a global regulatory and financial crime, risk and compliance firm, and OutsideIQ, a developer of risk-focused, artificial intelligence technologies, have announced the launch of DDIQ (Due Diligence IQ), an automated due diligence solution for AML, fraud investigations, third-party vendor screening, anti-bribery, and anti-corruption compliance. Details inside.
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Blog
AML Efforts Face Renewed Focus on SARs, Beneficial Ownership Data
Financial institutions should prepare for even greater scrutiny on their anti-money laundering efforts. Pending legislation and rulemaking will smooth the way for regulatory probes to use beneficial ownership information, and to expand the use of Suspicious Activity Reports, regulators said this week.
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Article
Petrobras Probe Portends Brazil Enforcement Crackdown
Image: Suddenly anti-corruption enforcement seems to be serious in Brazil—to the point that businesses working there might want to pay more heed to enforcement risks from Brazilian regulators themselves. The catalyst is the sweeping investigation into state-owned oil company Petrobras, riveting Brazil this month. “We can expect much more enforcement ...
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Blog
Retailers Decry Prospect of Bank-Like Data Security Rules
The National Retail Federation is asking Congress to reject any legislation that would impose data security rules designed for the banking industry upon non-bank businesses. An overly broad expansion of data security standards similar to Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act guidelines would “be a serious error,” it says.
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Blog
Deloitte Advances Ucuzoglu to Lead Audit Practice
Image: After Deloitte advanced its head of audit to CEO in February, the firm has appointed Joseph Ucuzoglu chairman and CEO of subsidiary Deloitte & Touche. Ucuzoglu says he has a handful of near-term priorities that focus on innovating the audit practice to elevate audit quality. “We want to really ...