Here are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my eye: Leadership (as told by the Pointy-Haired Boss) Paper Lion Ahead for SEC’s Pay-to-Play Exemption? by Allix Magaziner in the Pay to Play Blog On March 14, the SEC’s pay-to-play rule will come into effect and there is growing concern that the rule’s exemption for accidental … Read more »
A Criminological Perspective on Business Ethics
White-collar crime has a strong influence on business ethics. Joseph Heath uses a criminological perspective to help illuminate some traditional questions in business ethics in his paper: “Business Ethics and Moral Motivation: A Criminological Perspective” Heath starts off with the premise that the ‘‘ethics scandals’’ in the early years of the twenty-first century was not … Read more »
Do Hedge Funds Create Criminals?
Lynn Stout takes the recent charges against arrest of Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group, and the recent raids on expert networks as an indictment of the entire hedge fund industry. She makes the mistake of using a few bad apples to state the whole industry is corrupt. The vast majority of hedge funds … Read more »
The Case for Professional Boards
If you want to improve governance at a corporation, do you need professional directors? Did SOX merely add a layer of legal obligations of board, and do little to improve the quality of those serving as directors? Robert C. Pozen makes the case in The Case for Professional Boards in the December issue of the … Read more »
The SEC Wants to Know if You Are Systemically Important
The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a new rule that would require advisers to private funds to report information for use by the Financial Stability Oversight Council in monitoring risk to the U.S. financial system. Sections 404 and 406 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires the SEC to gather this … Read more »
Data Privacy Day
Data Privacy Day is January 28, 2011. There have events throughout the week to inform and educate us all about our personal data rights and protections. Here are some key reminders: Never Post or Share Personal Information such as a date of birth, personal address, or maiden name because identity thieves now friend as many … Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for January 28
Here are some recent compliance-related stories that caught my eye: Compliance Professionals Ask Justice Department for Data Showing Programs Pay Off Corporate ethics and compliance officers want the U.S. Department of Justice to provide data “that identifies how often an effective ethics and compliance program yields a direct return in enforcement decisions,” according to three … Read more »
How to Find Answers Within Your Company – Would Quora Work?
Making sure that people get the right answer to questions is vital to the success of a business. From a compliance perspective, it’s important that questions in the compliance domain get answered correctly. It’s just as important that compliance professionals can find the correct answers to their questions. On one side you have GRC, trying … Read more »
Proposed “New” Standard for Accredited Investor
If you are involved in the private placement of securities, then you have been waiting to hear how the SEC was going to change the definition of “accredited investor.” Section 413(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires the definitions of “accredited investor” to exclude the value of a person’s primary … Read more »
SEC Study on Enhancing Investment Adviser Examinations
Now that most private funds managers are required to register with SEC as investment advisers, the SEC is considering abandoning them to regulation by FINRA. The SEC released the much anticipated report, a 40-page “ Study on Enhancing Investment Adviser Examinations” mandated by Section 914 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. … Read more »