Compliance

Recent SEC settlements should cause in-house counsel to assess their current separation agreements and company policies to ensure the documents do not impede whistleblower protections afforded to employees under U.S. federal law. Read on for more detail.

The new payment card data security standard went into effect November 1, 2016. Some of the changes may require significant effort to achieve and could result in companies being out of compliance for an extended period of time. Now is the time to review your control environment and begin filling any gaps.

We’ve all seen headlines about disastrous IT outages that cost companies millions. It’s easy to sit back and judge. How could they have possibly let that happen? Reality check: IT outages happen every day. It’s how you respond that counts. Learn from the mistakes other companies make far too often.

The corporate “gatekeepers,” attorneys and compliance officers, are often most likely to learn about illegalities, and they are also the most challenged as prospective whistleblowers. Few definitive rules exist, but due to legal, ethical or fiduciary constraints, they may be prohibited from informing authorities about wrongdoing.

Monitoring and auditing travel and expense reports is no walk in the park, particularly at large organizations. The experts at Oversight Systems, which examines trillions of dollars of expense transactions annually, has identified some trends and vulnerabilities. Oversight’s Nathanael L’Heureux addresses some of the most common vulnerabilities in T&E management.

Whistleblowers in Australia cannot expect the same level of protection as American whistleblowers. Some limited protections exist, though not with every regulatory body or in every jurisdiction. But the SEC receives a fair number of tips from Australia, indicating that Australians have a taste for the American system, which rewards whistleblowing.

It used to be that no single regulator saw its job as protecting the economy and financial system as a whole, but the convergence of regulations and risk management is bringing transformative change. The EU’s Market Abuse Regulation targets EU financial firms, though U.S. based organizations must take notice as well.

Movies and pop culture, whether directly or indirectly, often teach us many of the lessons we learn in our lives. As the legendary character of Willy Wonka, Gene Wilder may have been the first on-screen character to teach us about ethics and compliance.

Compliance is an afterthought for many organizational procedures and processes. In most cases, audit teams periodically review transactions after the fact to check for compliance. But artificial intelligence technologies enable active compliance that is both highly effective and embedded within the core business processes so as to eliminate the sacrifices to speed and efficiency normally associated with business process oversight.

Anti-corruption laws are being passed worldwide as foreign litigation heats up. Can you rely on your U.S.-based D&O policy, or do the risks require a foreign solution?

This new whitepaper from CEB highlights the importance of making compliance part of a company's operations -- and offers three important changes compliance teams must make to their programs.

By white collar defender and former federal prosecutor Michael Volkov, this book looks a the DOJ's latest attempts to deter corporate criminals