The Office of the Comptroller of Currency has said that it will take into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on compliance as it considers examinations and enforcement. Banks face heightened compliance risks during the Coronavirus Crisis as staff reductions coincide with a large influx of loan requests, making Read More
The second-largest lender in Australia, Westpac, says that millions of breaches of anti-money laundering (AML) laws resulted from technology shortcomings and human error, but were not intentional, according to an internal audit. Westpac has recently faced accusations of 23 million instances of AML compliance violations, including failures to detect money Read More
The Justice Department published a revision to its document that guides its processes for evaluating corporate compliance in a criminal investigation last week. The revisions give internal audit some important guidelines for assessing the corporate compliance function. The guidance on Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs helps prosecutors ask companies the Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission awarded a whistleblower “with compliance-related responsibilities” $450,000 for providing information that helped in a successful enforcement action. While the SEC didn’t name the whistleblower, the company involved, or provide his or her title—in keeping with its confidentiality protections—it did say in a statement that it Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that Ohio-based pharmaceutical company Cardinal Health has agreed to pay more than $8 million to resolve charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). According to the SEC’s order, Cardinal’s internal Read More
It is difficult today to avoid news about allegations and subsequent investigations. First, it was a slew of high profile allegations about sexual misconduct—which continues. More recently, it’s about abuse of power in the government. And rarely a day goes by without some news of a financial fraud, bribery, or Read More
When the Securities and Exchange Commission announced last week that it was settling charges against printing and graphics company Quad/Graphics Inc., it cited multiple internal audit and compliance failures as contributing factors in securities law and bribery violations by the company. The Wisconsin-based digital and print marketing provider has agreed Read More
GUEST BLOG Compliance officers and internal auditors are natural partners and allies in the compliance governance landscape. As the compliance profession and its influence grew, compliance officers often leaned on internal auditors for help in assessing risks, uncovering financial misconduct, and assessing compliance functions and controls. Recently, however, I have Read More
The board of the Federal Deposit Corp. voted to approve changes to the Volcker Rule, which could ease some restrictions under the regulations and provide more clarity on what types of trades are and are not permitted. The Volcker Rule, which is part of the Dodd-Frank Act, generally prohibits banks Read More
Security pros know that compliance does not equal security, yet compliance continues to be a top driver for security investment. Given that compliance and audit mandates are more tangible measures for non-security executives, requesting support for tools and processes that help meet these requirements is an excellent lever to pull Read More
