Few compliance and audit executives believe that integrating those two functions is a wise idea, but good news for those of you forced by your CEO to march down that dubious path—you have some fresh guidance on how to make the trip with minimal missteps. Last week the Institute of Internal Auditors published a slim…
Well, apparently now it’s the nominating and governance committee’s turn to be hammered on the anvil of corporate governance reform. We see the evidence everywhere: a report from the Government Accountability Office noting that at current pace, women will represent half of all seats on corporate boards sometime around 2055. Calls for more women, minorities,…
Yesterday I had the privilege to participate in a corporate governance forum in New York, talking about the board of directors’ role in building corporate resilience. Resiliency is a popular buzzword in governance circles these days, so I want to recap some of the main points here—because while I agree that the modern company absolutely…
Anyone looking for jobs in the compliance field these days is bound to encounter the hot buzzword in the profession, “Compliance 2.0.” Mostly this phrase is marketing spin—but it’s worth dissecting in a bit more detail, because there is some substance behind the idea, and that can have some importance as compliance professionals look for…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
