In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
Author: admin
The Compliance Life details the journey to and in the role of a Chief Compliance Officer. How does one come to sit in the CCO chair? What are some of the skills a CCO needs to success navigate the compliance waters in any company? What are some of the top challenges CCOs have faced and how did they meet them? These questions and many others will be explored in this new podcast series. Over four episodes each month on The Compliance Life, I visit with one current or former CCO to explore their journey to the CCO chair. This month, my guest is Kortney Nordrum, Regulatory Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Deluxe. In this Part 2, she talks about her move to DC with her now hubby, where Nordrum worked for Freddie Mac Technology Consultant on the team that reverse engineered the software at Freddie Mac to be SOX compliant. In this role, Nordrum learned the basics of SOX requirements. She then went to law school and studied abroad in Israel at Bar Ilan University. In law school she became interested in Animal Law and decided she wanted to be an animal lawyer. She left MN to head to NYC and Big Law, quickly realizing it did not fit with who she is, so she moved back to MN.
The Kitchen reviews a recent seizure by the DOJ of a tanker used for illegal shipments into North Korea.
Dennis Kucinich is a career politician who has worked at the municipal, state, and federal levels and is joining Tom Fox on the Innovation in Compliance to talk about his newest book Division of Light and Power. This book is a story of corporate espionage, corporate sabotage, bank extortion of a city, and a mob-directed assassination plot that took place in Cleveland back in the 70s when Dennis was the mayor at only 31-years-old.
What Happened in Cleveland
In Cleveland in the 1970s, there were two electricity companies: Munilight, a public company, and Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co, a private company. The municipal company was able to provide cheaper electricity to citizens of the city, and so became the target of an aggressive sabotage campaign on the part of CEI, so they could acquire the utility and have a monopoly on power in the city. They succeeded. As Mayor of Cleveland, Dennis tried to block the acquisition and became the target of a mob-directed assassination plot. Tom makes the point that issues like this are still happening, mentioning the recent Texas blackouts during a winter storm which were caused by negligence, incompetence, or criminal activity.
The Role of the Media
This was possible, in large part because of the complicity of the media. CEI had a massive advertising budget, and no qualms about bribing or otherwise “softening up” city council members to discredit Munilight. Tom points out that the press has a huge role in anti-corruption activities and asks Dennis how the media failed to examine the governance of the city of Cleveland, and Dennis responds that “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” The media was subverted to CEI’s agenda, and reporters who went against the party line were fired.
Accountability in Government
Tom and Dennis discuss the fact that government works – the question is who does it work for? Dennis says that if citizens want the government to be working for them, they have to keep their representatives honest by asking questions, demanding explanations, and refusing to be silent when something seems off. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of officials using their power to make a buck.
How to be Incorruptible
Tom asks Dennis what made him able to resist literal suitcases full of cash when they were offered to him, and Dennis says there is a Crosby Stills, Nash song called Teach Your Children with a line that goes: You, who are on the road, must have a code, that you can live by.” Dennis shares what his code is: an inner moral compass that is a simple understanding of what’s right and what’s wrong. He believes that when you do wrong, you pay for it, and that by leading a decent and moral life where you don’t need to worry about what you did or said – that’s an easy way to live: with a light heart.
Resources:
Division of Light and Power
Crosby, Still and Nash, “Teach Your Children”
The Kitchen takes a look at the UK’s Financial Action Task Force Guidance on Proliferation Financing Risk Assessment and Mitigation.
Matt DiGuiseppe, currently the Vice President of Research and ESG at Diligent, started his career in proxy voting and corporate governance, a nascent ESG space, primarily around asset stewardship, engaging with companies around materials, environment, social, and governance topics. Back then – you were begging companies to come talk to you. The industry has come a long way, and now companies are excited to share the good works they’re doing in this area. He and Tom discuss the changes in the ESG over the last few years and the new tools and technologies that are helping companies implement effective programs.
A Changing Dialogue
Tom asks, in addition to the name change from Asset Management to Asset Stewardship, what are some of the big changes Matt has seen. Matt explains that one was the availability of data and also a change in the willingness of companies to engage with customers on ESG issues. What once was hour-long conversations about compensation, now are multiple real conversations every year about ESG and how it links to broader strategy and the day-to-day functioning of the organization. He and Tom discuss how asset managers assess companies using the data and the conversations happening about it.
Old Systems Aren’t Up to the Task
Business systems that are in use now were really not designed to report on or assess ESG issues. Matt talks about the Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism, which brought together investors and other stakeholders to develop new accounting metrics for ESG topics. The participants brainstormed different metrics that would be useful, and the companies in attendance tried to apply them to test the concepts being developed. It turned out that the information was very difficult to obtain from the information systems being used. Diligent is helping to bridge that gap with tools that can gather data from different systems using advanced technologies. Tom has had similar experiences and seen the availability of data increase in his areas of practice as well. – he always tries to tie it back to overall business efficiency and profitability.
Regulatory Issues
Tom notes that the Biden Administration has made a lot of changes around ESG, and Matt talks about how on a global basis you’re seeing regulators almost race to set standards for industries to meet. Regulations are coming to investors as well as companies themselves, which means there is another market for clear, comprehensive data on ESG.
How Diligent Is Helping Companies Report on ESG
Matt shares some of the tools and features available from Diligent, and how they can help companies track, monitor, and report on their ESG programs.
- Automated Data Collection through an RPA –Robotic Process Automation allows you to take unstructured data and turn it into something decision-useful.
- Collection Calculation and Reporting of Greenhouse Gases in a way that is auditable.
- Customizable Reports and Real Time Dashboards. Management, boards, and executives all need different amounts and kinds of information.
- Importing External Data. Being able to see not just your own company’s data, but the public perception of it, as well as how your peers are performing provides a much more meaningful understanding of your metrics.
Final Thoughts
Tom says the three most important things about any compliance program are document, document, document, which he has amended to include data, data, data – and ESG marries these two concepts. Matt agrees and goes on to share some of the ways the Diligent platform is helping make this possible so that if a regulator comes knocking, organizations are confident and prepared.
Resources
Diligent.com
The Diligent Institute
In today’s edition of Sunday Book Review:
· The PI Guidebook: How the Promotability Index® Can Help You Get Ahead in Your Career, by Amii Barnard-Bahn
· The Compliance Entrepreneur’s Handbook: Tools, Tips, and Tactics to Find Your Killer Idea and Create Success on Your Own Terms by Kirsten Listen, Kristy Grant-Hart and Joe Murphy
· Declaration of Independence by Eric Young
· The Compliance Handbook, 2nd Edition by Tom Fox