I try not to wax too philosophical in my columns, nor take such a macro-economic view of events that I lose sight of the relevance to compliance officers. Sometimes, however, as we all struggle to answer that eternal question, “Does fighting for ethical business standards really matter?” a perspective comes along that answers the question…
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As Wall Street crashes around our ears this week—down 1.5 percent just today, and off to its worst yearly start ever—audit committees at financial firms should strap yourselves in. This year’s audit could be the most tumultuous you’ve overseen in a long while. At least, that’s the conclusion I reach as I re-read the guidance…
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Audit committees at big international banks have just been nudged. Whether that nudge is friendly or not remains to be seen. The regulatory poke to the ribs came in a bulletin issued Friday by three U.S. banking regulators, voicing their support for external audits of large banks done according to standards issued by the Basel…
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Several times now I’ve mentioned that the Dodd-Frank Act “works” in the sense that it has brought more stability to the financial system, even if other parts of the law are wrong-headed. Today, let me talk about one of those wrong-headed parts: the Conflict Minerals Rule. Or more accurately, let’s use the Conflict Minerals Rule…
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I had the good fortune yesterday to participate in a briefing with a few lawyers from Quarles and Brady, a mid-sized firm based in Wisconsin that handles corporate law. We were there to talk about compliance issues facing the financial services industry in 2016—and you’ll be happy to know that compliance officers will have no…
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Corporate compliance officers have another agency firing warning shots across the bow these days: the Federal Trade Commission, which has shared more of its thinking recently about how businesses should handle Big Data. Last week the FTC published a 35-page report looking at that various ways a firm could get into trouble by using Big…
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Perhaps other people—ne’er-do-wells and losers, obviously—think that contract management is boring. Well, that’s not the case here at Radical Compliance, so we were delighted earlier today to see a quick essay on subject posted on LinkedIn. Let’s get into it. The post was written by Martin Lønstrup, senior legal adviser at Maersk Oil in Houston.…
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Good news for compliance officers joyously eager to participate in your firm’s FINRA reviews this year: FINRA has just published its examination priorities for 2016, and you will be involved up to your eyeballs. FINRA grouped its exam priorities into the categories of culture and ethics; risk management and controls; and liquidity. None of those is…
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Let me begin this column with a personal disclosure: I refinanced my house in December. So I have first-hand knowledge of just how frustrating compliance with modern mortgage lending can be, at least on the consumer side. Plenty of compliance officers also talk about the frustration of compliance burdens on the lender side, and how…
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