Compliance Blog Roundup: What To Expect From Mary Shapiro as New Chair of SEC

The time has come for us to span the compliance and governance blogosphere and bring you the Compliance Blog Roundup. After receiving a link in the blogroll of the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Blog, we were fortunate enough to stumble upon some other outstanding resources that were also linked to by Harvard. Many of the posts included in this week’s roundup were found in this manner.

Let’s get right to it. Titles, excerpts and links for you to follow:

With Mary Shapiro’s Appointment as New SEC Chair Will XBRL and IFRS still be a Focus?

While financial pundits are debating what consequences Mary Shapiro’s appointment as the new SEC chief will have on corporate America, Audit Trail sat down with two financial experts to get their take on what to expect once Shapiro takes charge. Will she be spending most of her time re-establishing the SEC’s lost credibility as the “investor’s advocate” stemming from the recent Bernie Madoff episode or should companies start acting fast on XBRL and IFRS transitions? Let’s see what our experts have to say.

>>>read post at the Audit Trail blog by Approva

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Davos: The Spectacle of the Desperately Discredited Attempting to Flee the Apocalypse of their Own Creation

Having been escorted to the brink of ruin by the leaders who insisted they had all the answers (and made most of the rules), the public is not soon likely to entrust its fate to multimillionaires whose idea of tragedy is to be left off the A-list party circuit at Davos, and whose notions of governance and oversight are reflected in the fox-guarding-the-henhouse board structure of the New York Federal Reserve, where, for instance, Richard Fuld Jr. was a director until the collapse of Lehman Brothers. What the regulators at this fabled Swiss resort did not appear to grasp is that the breezier than usual air this year was the cold wind of change brought on by the bitter storm of betrayal and personal devastation that millions around the world have felt as a result of Wall Street’s greed and the failures of those expected to regulate it.

>>>read post at Finlay on Governance

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Obama’s Themes of Responsibility and Accountability Resonate for Privacy

The themes of President Obama’s inaugural address not only conveyed a strong message to the nation, but reflected current concerns about data governance shared by privacy professionals and policymakers as well. His speech captured the importance of individual responsibility in public and personal life as America faces challenging economic times.

>>>read post at the Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

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Occidental Agrees to Hold Annual Pay Vote

Occidental Petroleum, which has faced shareholder dissent over its pay practices, has agreed to hold an advisory vote on compensation at its 2010 annual meeting and support federal “say on pay” legislation.

“We welcome ongoing input from our stockholders. Oxy’s Board of Directors strives to maintain an ongoing, constructive dialogue with the goal of achieving continuous improvement in all aspects of our corporate governance, including executive compensation,” Ray R. Irani, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a Jan. 26 press release.

>>>read post at RiskMetrics Group Risk & Governance Blog

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Canada: CCGG executive compensation principles

The Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (an organisation representing the interests of institutional investors) has published for comment draft executive compensation principles. Of interest is the (perhaps surprising) position taken by the CCGG with regard to shareholder advisory votes on remuneration.

>>>read post at Corporate Law and Governance

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The Era of Mega Fines – Implications for Directors and Officers

While the Corporate Sentencing Guidelines went into effect in 1991, it was not until 1996 that the real punitive potential of the law was realized – with the imposition of a $340 million criminal fine in a case against Daiwa Bank. Writing that same year in the Caremark decision, Delaware Chancellor William Allen noted how the Guidelines had created the prospect of “penalties that often equal or massively exceed those previously imposed on corporations” and that “[a]ny rational person attempting in good faith to meet an organizational governance responsibility would be bound to take into account this development” by reducing the risks of large fines through implementing compliance and ethics (C&E) programs.

>>>read post at Viewpoint by SAI Global

Tags: barack obama, Compliance, compliance blogs, davos, mary shapiro, Risk, sec