These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention.
One Thought on Blockchain in Money Compliance
Blockchain could make AML obsolete, in theory. Blockchain is the decentralized database system that allows for recordkeeping of transactions nearly impossible to fake. And because of it, it sort of creates a world that is zero sum. It isn’t completely zero sum, especially in the beginning because no sources of transaction have been recorded, but eventually so many transaction have been recorded that whatever currency is being tracked could be traced to its original source, in this case the first transaction on the database. [More…]
Farewell to Ralph Stanley and Success in Repatriation by Tom Fox in FCPA Compliance Report
I thought about Stanley’s genius when considering one of the challenges in anti-corruption going forward; which is the issue of repatriation of the funds stolen from a country through bribery. Matt Stephenson, over at the Global Anti-Corruption Blog (GAB), has been a persistent commentator of the difficulties of such a repatriation. However, an article in the Financial Times (FT) by Kara Scannell, entitled “Moving money out of purgatory”, detailed one of the success stories in this area while also reporting on many of the difficulties outlined by Stephenson in the GAB. [More…]
Small Firm Cybersecurity Checklist
FINRA has created a Cybersecurity Checklist (Excel 114 KB) to assist small firms in establishing a cybersecurity program to identity and assess cybersecurity threats, protect assets from cyber intrusions, detect when their systems and assets have been compromised, plan for the response when a compromise occurs and implement a plan to recover lost, stolen or unavailable assets. This checklist is primarily derived from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework and FINRA’s Report on Cybersecurity Practices. Use of this checklist does not create a “safe harbor” with respect to FINRA rules, federal or state securities laws, or other applicable federal or state regulatory requirements.
Legislators Boast That Shrinking Size of GE Capital Proves Dodd-Frank Is a Success by Steven Lofchie in Cadwalder Cabinet
Facts belie the legislators’ political assertion that Dodd-Frank has had the effect of shrinking big firms and increasing market share for smaller firms. A look at the three most significant types of Dodd-Frank-regulated financial intermediaries: banks, broker-dealers and futures commission merchants (“FCMs”) makes this clear: [More…]
The average American woman now weighs as much as the average 1960s man by Christopher Ingraham in The Washington Post
The average American woman weighs 166.2 pounds,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As reddit recently pointed out, that’s almost exactly as much as the average American man weighed in the early 1960s. [More…]
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