These are some of the compliance-related stories that recently caught my attention.
Compliance 101: Defining a Control by Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance
Last week I was speaking at an ethics and compliance event in Houston, where one of the other speakers stumped the crowd with a deceptively simple question: What is a control?
After all, compliance officers talk about controls constantly. Effective controls are the lifeblood of what makes a compliance program work. Most of us can rattle off examples of controls, or recognize a control when we see one.
So my fellow speaker asked the audience: What is a control? [More…]
Demise of LIBOR benchmark takes center stage at MRAC meeting by Brad Rosen, J.D.
“LIBOR is a widely utilized benchmark that is no longer derived from a widely traded market. It is an enormous edifice built on an eroding foundation—an unsustainable structure,” stated CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo in his opening remarks at the agency’s Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC) meeting held in Washington, D.C. In a similar vein, Commissioner Rostin Behnam, the committee’s sponsor, identified the rampant misconduct incited by the benchmark’s decline, noting that “LIBOR has been subject to pervasive fraud, abuse, and manipulation. Since June 2012, the CFTC has levied sanctions of more than $3.3 billion for LIBOR-related misconduct.” [More…]
6th Circ.: Crime Policy’s Computer Fraud Section Covers Email Scheme Losses by Kevin LaCroix in The D&O Diary
In the second policyholder-favorable federal appellate court decision on the issue in a matter of days, the Sixth Circuit has held that the Computer Fraud provisions of a commercial crime policy cover a company’s losses from an email payment instruction fraud scheme. Just last week, the Second Circuit ruledin the Medidata case that Computer Fraud coverage applied to losses incurred in a similar email scam. However, the Sixth Circuit’s decision may be even more helpful for policyholders as, unlike the Second Circuit’s decision, the policyholder-favorable ruling is not as dependent on very specific factual determinations about the way the fraudster manipulated the harmed company’s email program. The Sixth Circuit’s July 13, 2018 decision in the American Tooling Center (ATC) opinion can be found here. [More…]
The Premium for Money-Like Assets by Marco Cipriani and Gabriele La Spada in Liberty Street Economics
Several academic papers have documented investors’ willingness to pay a premium to hold money-like assets and focused on its implications for financial stability. In a New York Fed staff report, we estimate such premium using a quasi-natural experiment, the recent reform of the money market fund (MMF) industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). [More…]
Two Recent Cases Highlight the Insider Trading Risks Associated with Cyber Breaches by Avi Gesser, James H.R. Windels, Joseph A. Hall, Laura Turano, and Zachary Shapiro in NYU Laws Compliance Enforcement
The recent convictions of two traders for using hacked press releases and the settlement of SEC insider trading charges against a former Equifax manager highlight the significant insider trading risks companies face when dealing with a cyber event. These risks come in two forms.
First, there is the risk that someone (either inside or outside the company) has gained unauthorized electronic access to material nonpublic information (“MNPI”) about the company or one of its business or transaction partners, and will use that information for illegal securities trading purposes. [More…]
Pan Mass Challenge
On Pan-Mass Challenge weekend, August 3 – 5, I will bike across Massachusetts to raise money for life-saving cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 100% of your donation will go to cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through its Jimmy Fund. I have made a personal commitment to raise $8000.00. I hope, that as a reader of Compliance Building, you will support my fundraising effort. You can donate through any of the following links:
Thank you,
Doug
