These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention.
Three Equifax Managers Sold Stock Before Cyber Hack Was Revealed by Anders Melin
Three Equifax Inc. senior executives sold shares worth almost $1.8 million in the days after the company discovered a security breach that may have compromised information on about 143 million U.S. consumers. The credit-reporting service said late Thursday in a statement that it discovered the intrusion on July 29. Regulatory filings show that three days later, Chief Financial Officer John Gamble sold shares worth $946,374 and Joseph Loughran, president of U.S. information solutions, exercised options to dispose of stock worth $584,099. Rodolfo Ploder, president of workforce solutions, sold $250,458 of stock on Aug. 2. None of the filings lists the transactions as being part of 10b5-1 pre-scheduled trading plans. [More…]
Why the Supreme Court May Review the S.E.C.’s In-House Judges by Peter Henning in DealBook
The S.E.C. asked for en banc review of that decision, but the appeals court denied the request in May. In response, the agency issued an ordersuspending all administrative cases in which a decision could be reviewed in the 10th Circuit, which covers Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.
That kind of inconsistency in the law demands the Supreme Court resolve the split in how the appeals courts assess whether the S.E.C.’s administrative judges were appointed properly. [More…]
Robert Jackson of New York to be a Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission for the remainder of a 5-year term expiring June 5, 2019.
Mr. Jackson is a Professor at Columbia Law School and Director of its Program on Corporate Law and Policy. Mr. Jackson’s academic work focuses on corporate governance and the use of advanced data science techniques to improve transparency in securities markets. His career has spanned the public and private sectors. Mr. Jackson served as a senior advisor at the Department of the Treasury during the financial crisis, assisting Kenneth Feinberg in his work as Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation, and previously worked as a lawyer in private practice. Mr. Jackson holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.B.A. in Finance from the Wharton School of Business, a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a law degree from Harvard Law School. Born in the Bronx, New York, Mr. Jackson currently lives in New York City. [WhiteHouse.gov]
Let’s Not Get Too Excited with FINRA’s Proposal on Re-Taking Exams by
Most brokers despise the fact that they need to re-take their examinations if they are not employed with a broker-dealer for 2 years or if they are not associated with a member firm. Now, FINRA comes to the rescue with a new proposal to permit registered representatives to avoid re-taking their exams for up to 7 years so long as they fulfill continuing education requirements. See http://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/rule_filing_file/SR-FINRA-2017-007.pdf. [More…]
Whistleblower Hotlines: Still a Vital Tool by Matt Kelly in Ethics & Compliance Matters
Recently the chief compliance officer of a global company asked me: does a company need a telephone-based whistleblower hotline anymore? In our all-technology, all-the-time world, could a company phase out telephone hotlines in favor of a web-only reporting system?
The answer to that question requires a bit of finesse. The short answer is yes: in the purest, technical interpretation of corporate governance law and SEC rules, a company isn’t required to provide a telephone hotline as one reporting option. But you would need bulletproof arguments demonstrating why your organization no longer needs a telephone hotline, and never will in the future. [More…]