All Compliance Week articles in Web Issue – Page 847
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Blog
Goodwill Impairment Drops to Five-Year Low
Public companies reported the lowest levels of goodwill impairment last year since the financial crisis touched off a downward spiral in corporate values beginning in 2008. According to Duff & Phelps’ annual study, public companies recorded writedowns totaling $21 billion in 2013, down nearly 60 percent from the $51 billion ...
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Blog
Study: Paying Firms Get First Look at SEC’s EDGAR Filings
Oct. 29—A new study finds that a select group of professional investors gets an advance look at soon-to-be-public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Researchers found that a small group of subscribers who pay SEC-selected vendors for data feeds, among them hedge funds and high-frequency traders, receive access ...
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Blog
Proponents Say IFRS Will Benefit EU Moving Forward
Image: Title: HoogervorstOct. 29—The heads of two groups charged with overseeing the International Financial Reporting Standards have told the European Commission that using the single set of financial reporting standards has benefited the European Union and will continue to do so. IFRS Foundation Board of Trustees Chairman Michel Prada and ...
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Blog
U.K. Fraud Office’s GC Offers Advice to Corporates for DPAs
Image: Title: GreenOct. 29—The general counsel for the U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office has provided some advice for companies interested in taking advantage of newly approved deferred-prosecution agreements if faced with an investigation from the SFO. Alun Milford, the SFO’s general counsel, said in a speech that the key factors for ...
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Blog
For One Day, At Least, Australia a 'Paradise for White Collar Criminals'
In remarks at a business journalism awards lunch last week in Australia, Greg Medcraft, the Chairman of the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, made some startlingly candid remarks about the state of Australia's ability to prosecute and penalize white collar crime. Medcraft noted that ASIC had conducted a review of ...
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Blog
Applied Technologies Elects New Chair
The board of directors of Applied Industrial Technologies has elected Peter Wallace as its independent chairman. He succeeds John Meier, who has served as chairman since 2011 and who will continue to serve as a member of the board. Details inside.
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Article
CFPB Offers No-Action Letters With Strings Attached
Image: Title: LampeFinancial firms worried about an enforcement action from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may soon get a reprieve. The agency has proposed a no-action letter policy that would let financial firms test the regulatory waters before they roll out new financial products. The application process, however, requires much ...
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Blog
Keeping Reporting Overseers on the Same Page
The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board have several formal and informal channels to compare notes and exchange ideas. Still, some wonder if a forum to discuss the reporting system as a whole and the long-term health of that system ...
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Article
Reducing Systems and Risks in Purchase-to-Pay
Most companies maintain several systems within their procurement and accounts payable functions, especially if they have grown through acquisition. But several systems can create risks, including low supplier visibility. Fewer systems can help, but it’s not a cure-all. Many companies find they need to take steps to reduce the risks ...
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ArticleHow to Tell if Your Whistleblower Hotline Is Effective
As companies strive to keep investigations internal, rather than risk high-profile regulatory intervention, improving the hotlines they use to solicit employee tips and concerns is crucial. Using metrics and industry benchmarks can help, but measuring the effectiveness of internal whistleblower efforts may be the hardest part. Some tips and trends ...
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ArticleSEC Enforcement Trends: Targeting Gatekeepers and Rewarding Tipsters
The Securities and Exchange Commission brought a record-breaking number of enforcement actions in fiscal year 2014, including several against compliance and audit executives. That should come as no surprise: Enforcement Director Andrew Ceresney (pictured above) warned last spring that the SEC wouldn’t hesitate to pursue executives, including compliance professionals, when ...
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Article
All Eyes on Internal Controls as Year-End Close Approaches
Image: Title: DurbinAs companies begin preparing for the year-end close, audit experts are warning them to take these final months of the year to check documentation. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is pressuring audit firms to scrutinize internal controls and other areas, and that scrutiny is likely to trickle ...
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Article
As Tech Firms Enter the Payments Space, Regulators Are Watching
Last month Apple plunged into the world of payment processing with its Apple Pay service that allows its mobile devices to make payments at retailers. Rivals Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have already dabbled in the market that includes Pay Pal and several others. These disruptive technologies may prompt regulators to ...
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Blog
Boards Show More Interest in Cyber-Security Threats
Boards are watching cyber-security risks more closely, with nearly 60 percent of board members in a recent BDO USA survey saying they are more involved in the discussion now than they were just last year. Still, many boards aren’t getting the information they want; just one-fourth say they get a ...
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Blog
FCPA Takeaways in Layne Christensen
Image: Layne Christensen Co. joined the FCPA enforcement hall of shame this week; it was fined $5.1 million for various bribery infractions in Africa in the 2000s. Its aggressive investigation efforts won praise from regulators, but the root of the company’s problem—weak internal control over financial reporting—is still the far ...
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Blog
Getting In-Depth on Compliance
Image: In its full glory, corporate compliance is a complex subject. Compliance Week does its best to provide subscribers with timely, concise looks at news in this field to help you understand how you can build and manage a better compliance program, but let’s be honest—sometimes you need an even ...
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Blog
Podcast: The Trends Revealed by Company Codes of Conduct
Earlier this month, the University of Houston released a searchable database of the compliance codes for Fortune 500 companies. In our latest podcast we talk to Ryan McConnell, who teaches international corporate compliance at the school, about what the database tells us about how companies approach such topics as social ...
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Podcast
Podcast: The Trends Revealed by Company Codes of Conduct
Earlier this month, the University of Houston Law Center, building upon a program first launched in 2010, released a searchable database of the compliance codes for Fortune 500 companies. In our latest podcast, we talk to Houston attorney Ryan McConnell, an adjunct professor who teaches international corporate compliance, about what ...