For a long time, compliance was perceived as a part of the larger legal world. Today, compliance is its own profession — a place where people work tirelessly to make the world a better place, one where doing the right thing is the standard for everyone. There are a lot of amazing and inspirational women who have helped the compliance field develop into what it is today and women who are joining this field every day. They are leading the work on cutting-edge issues and breaking barriers for women. Join Mary Shirley and Lisa Fine as they talk with women in compliance who are making a difference. In today’s episode Mary visits with Amy Mertz Brown, Chief Compliance Officer of the SEC. They discussed her role and how it feels to have the responsibility of the head of the Compliance function for one of the most significant Compliance regulators in the world, her tips for success in technology implementations and her takeaways from spearheading the creation of a compliance function in a start-up federal agency. With her extensive managerial experience in legal and compliance departments, Amy also shared various approaches for addressing difficult stakeholders inside an inherited staff and how she prizes diversity as an important goal when building out her teams.
Day: July 24, 2019
Compliance into the Weeds is the only weekly podcast which takes a deep dive into a compliance related topic, literally going into the weeds to more fully explore a subject. In this episode, Matt Kelly (the coolest guy in compliance) and I go into the weeds to explore recent SEC enforcement actions which Matt characterized as an “internal control Palooza”. We explore what went askance, how to learn from it and how to prevent it going forward.
Some of the highlights include:
- The SEC recently had an “Internal Controls Palooza” of enforcement actions.
- Microsoft demonstrated poor controls over third parties.
- Why do does units need a ‘second set of eyes’ for non-standard discounts?
- What is earnings management and why is it so risky?
- Why do you need robust internal controls when engaging in earnings management?
- Why must internal controls have an auditable trail?
For further reading on Conn’s see Matt’s blog posts:
Conn’s Lessons on Management Estimatesand
More on Embedding, Automating Controls
For further reading on Microsoft see Matt’s blog post:
FCPA Issues Nick Microsoft $25 Million
Finally see Tom’s blog posts
Part 1-Microsoft FCPA Enforcement Actionand
Part 2-the Bribery Schemes
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- Epstein moved money out of US. (NYT)
- McKesson compliance chief-“I think we’re responsible for something”. (Washington Post)
- Facebook settlement requires Zuckerberg to certify compliance. (WSJ)
- SFO criticized for neglectful culture. (FT)
