Compliance

While U.S. companies have nervously awaited to see how the SEC would address carbon accounting and reporting requirements, now pending for months and months, California has continued to lead the way on the environmental front with the passage of Senate Bill 253.

Financial institutions have been hit with billions of dollars’ worth of fines in the past couple of years for failing to preserve business text messages, and Reuters recently reported that the SEC had expanded its probe into Wall Street's use of tools like WhatsApp and Signal. Whether they’re from the SEC, FINRA or CFTC, federal investigators will dig deep when...

With a series of proposed reforms on the table to improve the effectiveness of the UK’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulatory structure, First AML’s Simon Luke argues it’s essential to find the right fit for the regime going forward. A 2022 review of the UK’s AML/CTF framework determined that while the overall regulatory approach was sound, the regime in...

Real estate-related assets account for about 40% of global CO2 emissions, which means companies cannot get a handle on their ESG impact without understanding their owned and leased real estate footprint. Joe Fitzgerald of Visual Lease offers tips for leveraging lease management to create a more sustainable future. A staggering 99% of senior real estate executives believe it is important...

Auditors and government agencies have given a wide latitude when it comes to enforcement of ASC 606 and IFRS 15 accounting guidelines. But signs point to that grace coming to an end. Tom Zauli of Softrax says companies would be wise to plan for stricter oversight in the near-term. Since the ASC 606 and IFRS 15 guidelines were announced by...

Most companies are woefully underprepared to meet an approaching compliance deadline for updated payment security standards, according to a new report. The analysis by Bluefin and S&P Global Market Intelligence found that less than one-third of payment data security professionals surveyed said their organizations have a strong understanding of all the requirements associated with the new standards, and almost half...

Nearly three in four organizations are looking for ways to further enable automation of their SOX compliance processes, according to Protiviti’s 14th annual SOX compliance survey, which also found that 58% said they spent more time on SOX compliance in the past year. These findings underline the increasing pressure organizations are feeling from the PCAOB and external auditors to increase...

As we enter an age of stakeholder capitalism, it’s not enough just to be aware of ESG or consider them a ‘nice to do.’ Sponsored eBook ESG: New Kid on the Block or Part of the ERM Family? What’s in this eBook from Protecht: Environment, social and governance — ESG — is being talked about everywhere. It is the latest...

An analysis of annual reports from the UK’s biggest companies reveals that almost all of them — 90% — will only work with suppliers who share their ESG credentials, while another 3% are integrating those requirements this year. The analysis by OneStream, a corporate performance management platform, found that ahead of new sustainability reporting requirements set to come online in...

More than half of American employees are using generative AI tools at least occasionally to accomplish work-related tasks, according to a new survey by The Conference Board that found while a majority of workers are using these tools, few of their employers have mature organizational AI policies. The Conference Board survey of nearly 1,100 U.S. workers, predominantly office workers, found...

Regulators and auditors are already using AI for large-scale data analysis, but since most information relevant to investigations is unstructured, current tools and processes are lacking. But AI expert Johannes “Jan” Scholtes says that just as compliance teams and regulators adopted eDiscovery for dealing with large data sets, so, too, can the principles of AI and machine learning be leveraged...

Despite the flurry of real and rhetorical backlash against ESG reporting in the United States, many U.S. companies will not be able to escape stringent sustainability reporting requirements emanating from the EU. And the time to gear up for compliance is short, writes Lukas Tunikaitis, sustainability consultant in UL Solutions’ ESG advisory and assurance practice. The need to comply with...