1. Jay Rosen shouts out to the Golden Boy Tom Brady in asked ‘will 8 be enough’ to get the chip off Brady’s shoulders.
2. Tom Fox shouts out to Neil Gerrard for inventing the phrase ‘global amnesia’ for explaining why he lied in sworn testimony during the ENRC trial.
3. Karen Woody shouts out to second season of Ted Lasso.
4. Matt Kelly shouts out to restaurants requiring proof of vaccination of potential customers.
5. Jonathan Armstrong shouts out to author Eric Carle.
Tag: compliance
Rants and shouts outs from Episode 82.
1. Jay Rosen shouts out to first responders.
2. Tom Fox shouts out to the recently indicted Trump Organization for its Document Document Document policy which led to said indictment.
3. Lisa Fine shouts out to employees and others who speak up, raise valid issues and World Whistleblower Day. She rants about the overuse of the term ‘thought leader’.
4. Matt Kelly shouts out to proposed legislation in Congress to protect Inspector Generals.
Welcome to the Shout Outs and Rants from Episode 81
1. Mike Volkov rants about the DOJ investigations into Democratic members of Congress under the Trump Administration.
2. Jonathan Marks shouts out to the FBI for recovering the bitcoin payment made by Colonial Pipeline to the cyber hackers who breached it.
3. Kortney Nordrum rants about OSHA who after promising guidance for companies on return to work after Covid-19, only does so for health care organizations.
4. Matt Kelly has his own epic rant about Texas’ own Congressman Louis Gohmert who asked a Department of Forestry representative if they had looked at altering the orbit of the earth or moon to combat the effects of climate change.
5. Tom Fox shouts out to the Department of Justice who indicted two US citizens who were engaged in bribery and corruption in trying to persuade the Trump Administration to order the DOJ to drop its investigation into 1MDB.
Trends in Transaction Reporting in 2022
In this episode, CSS’s Transaction Reporting product team of Alexis Wiazmitinoff and Nicklas Nilsson make predictions on trends in transaction reporting in 2022 – from updates to SFTR to preparation for EMIR REFIT.
About Our Guest Speakers:
Alexis Wiazmitinoff is a Product Leader at CSS, responsible for leading the Global Transaction Reporting (GTR) solution. He is responsible for setting the GTR product roadmap and strategy. He guides the GTR product team during Sales/Pre-Sales engagements, product design/ delivery, thought leadership and takes part in client events. Alexis has 10 years of FinTech experience and a strong background working with traders, portfolio managers and front-to-back office personnel as part of core banking transformation projects on the continent and in the UK. Prior to joining CSS, Alexis product managed London Stock Exchange Group’s EMIR Trade Repository.”
Nicklas Nilsson is a Regulatory Specialist at CSS concentrating on global transaction reporting, including SFTR, MiFIR and EMIR. Nicklas is currently in a cross-functional role covering the regulations from analysis to implementation. He has eight years of experience working in the finance industry, including operational experience in fund reporting and regulatory implementation. Prior to joining CSS, Nicklas held positions at Swedbank, SEB and Wahlstedt Sageryd.
Aaron Nicodemus has been a reporter for over 30 years in the US and South Africa, having written for various notable publications including Bloomberg. He has been a writer/reporter at Compliance Week for the last 18 months. He is Tom Fox’s guest this week on the ESG Report. They discuss his recent article about the intersection of ESG and compliance, entitled “Compliance Must Carve Out Role in Company ESG Efforts.”
Inside the Mind of the CCO Survey
“Every year for the past three years Compliance Week has conducted an Inside the Mind of the CCO survey,” Aaron tells Tom. This year the focus was on ESG since it has been a hot topic, and they wanted to gauge what ESG initiatives looked like across industries and organizations. “Almost all of the compliance officers who took the survey felt that compliance should be involved in ESG initiatives at their company,” Aaron reveals. CCOs believe that compliance is best positioned to lead ESG since it intersects with so many of their core functions. “Putting [compliance] in charge of the ESG initiatives would help make sure that [the company] meets all the regulations that they should, and also that they are reporting on data that is both accurate and informative,” he comments. Now that the SEC is poised to issue new mandates regarding climate change disclosures, compliance will most likely have to be front and center for ESG going forward. “When regulators get involved that tends to push compliance to the fore,” Aaron remarks.
Key Findings
Tom and Aaron discuss some key findings outlined in the article. These include:
- The actual role of CCOs in ESG – 73% of CCOs have an active role in ESG, either as advisor, primary overseer, or advocate.
- Where they see their role – 23% of CCOs feel they should have more oversight over ESG than they currently have. Most persons surveyed feel that compliance should have a prominent role in ESG.
- Whether compliance should lead all 3 aspects of ESG – Most CCOs see governance as their core function, while environmental and social concerns are secondary roles.
- Compliance is the conscience of the company.
- Stakeholders are demanding more information on ESG to influence their investment decisions.
Growth of ESG
Tom sees ESG as the fastest moving corporate initiative. He asks Aaron if the survey confirms this view. “It’s been a gradual process that has come to a head in Europe and in the UK,” Aaron responds. Similar climate change disclosure mandates are likely to happen in the US in 2022. Companies have been pursuing sustainability and D&I initiatives for several years. “ESG collects up some of those things in a tight little bundle, and you can really pursue a lot of issues under the ESG umbrella,” he continues. He sees ESG accelerating over the next few years, starting with climate change.
Resources
Aaron Nicodemus on LinkedIn | Twitter | Email
Compliance Week: Compliance Must Carve Out Role in Company ESG Efforts
Last week the Biden Administration released the United States Strategy on Countering Corruption (the “Strategy”); subtitled “Pursuant To The National Security Study Memorandum On Establishing The Fight Against Corruption as a Core United States National Security Interest”; in response to President Biden’s prior declaration of corruption as a national security issue of the United States. While obviously focused on the US government’s role in leading the fight against corruption, the entire document portends a major sea change in the approach of fighting bribery and corruption, literally on a worldwide basis. For this reason alone, it should be studied by all compliance professionals. Over this 5-part series I will be delving into the Strategy and considering how it will impact the compliance professional.
However, first I have to pay tribute to fellow Houstonian and one of the four original Monkees, Michael Nesmith who died over the weekend. The cultural significance of The Monkees cannot not be overstated. It was television’s answer to The Beatles and the English Invasion. Nesmith was the tall quiet one, who was the best musician of the group, known for his trademark wool cap. With Peter Tork and Davey Jones also gone, only Mickey Dolenz is left. Nesmith chafed under the song writing and live playing restrictions believing that he was a good enough musician to both supply songs and perform them live. He was right on both scores. But Nesmith was a creative phenomenon, presaging country rock in an early band, creating the first music video and receiving the first Grammy for video. He also wrote Different Drummer, made a hit by Linda Ronstadt. Rock and Roll Heaven got another great over the weekend.
Back to the Strategy, which has five pillars (conveniently designed for a 5-part series). Pillar 1 is Modernizing, Coordinating, and Resourcing U.S. Government Efforts to Fight Corruption, with five strategic objectives (1) to enhance corruption related research, data collection, and analysis; (2) improve information sharing within the U.S. Government, with non-U.S.-Governmental entities, and internationally; (3) increase focus on the transnational dimensions of corruption; (4) organize and resource the fight against corruption, at home and abroad; and (5) integrate an anti-corruption focus into regional, thematic, and sectoral priorities.
Obviously, this more holistic approach is most welcomed. Corruption does more than simply steal money from the world economy. According to the Strategy, “Corruption robs citizens of equal access to vital services, denying the right to quality healthcare, public safety, and education. It degrades the business environment, subverts economic opportunity, and exacerbates inequality. It often contributes to human rights violations and abuses, and can drive migration. As a fundamental threat to the rule of law, corruption hollows out institutions, corrodes public trust, and fuels popular cynicism toward effective, accountable governance.” I would add several others such damaging the fight against climate change, destroying ethic business practices and, of course, leading to transnational crime and terrorism.
All of this means more information and analysis, including search and data collection, by using “information more effectively to understand and map corruption networks and related proceeds, and dynamics, and tailor prevention and enforcement related actions, as well as build the evidence base around effective assistance approaches.” The next improved information sharing within the US government, private companies and across international boundaries. It also includes holding corruption actors accountable, curbing illicit financing and bolstering international cooperation and actions.
Another key area will be the increased focus on the “transnational dimensions of corruption.” This means more than simply looking at the usual geographic areas recognized as high-risks of corruption by tackling transnational organized crime through “understanding and disrupting networks, tracking flows of money and other assets, and improving information and intelligence sharing across U.S. departments and agencies, and, as appropriate, with international and non-governmental partners.”
However, the Strategy makes it clear that there is an important US domestic component as “Law enforcement will be provided with the independence and resources necessary to investigate and prosecute domestic crimes involving abuses of the public trust. The Administration will advocate for greater transparency in the U.S. campaign finance system, and to strengthen prohibitions on foreign nationals attempting to influence federal, state, or local elections.” To help in this effort the Department of Treasury will establish an “Anti-Corruption team to develop and support the implementation of current and new initiatives to address corruption and corrupting influence on the U.S. economy.” This group will look at such apparently disparate areas as “financial crimes and financial intelligence, economic sanctions, financial transparency policy, criminal tax investigations, tax policy, and international finance.”
In addition to the Department of Treasury, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will also develop an Anti-Corruption Task Force to help develop ABC programs and partnerships, look at ABC policy and improvements; promote ABC across foreign sectors and consider resources. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network FinCEN will continue to play a key role in building out an ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) data system for not only law enforcement but the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to help “identify, investigate, and take enforcement actions against fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.”
In Pillar 1 the government will merge all these efforts into “regional, thematic and sectorial priorities”. So not only will the usual suspects be targeted, both regionally and by industry, but areas such as response to climate change, response to the Covid-19 pandemic and overall infrastructure. Note, references were made several times to non-government actors, which includes US private and public sector entities. Strategic Objective 1.5 will allow pivoting when new issues, challenges and risks arise, such as Covid-19 and the variants from over the past several months.
Finally, in Pillar 1 you begin to see the overall outlines of this new US government approach. No longer will the effort to fight corruption be led by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Now a much wider and broader swath of the US government will be involved in the overall effort.
Join us tomorrow where we pay honor to Anne Rice and consider Pillar 2 – Curbing Illicit Financing.
In October, Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Lisa O. Monaco gave a Keynote Address at ABA’s 36th National Institute on White Collar Crime (Monaco Speech). Her remarks reframed a discussion about the uses of, reasons for and perceptions on independent monitors and monitorships. I asked Affiliated Monitors Inc. (AMI) founder Vin DiCianni for his thoughts around the remarks on monitors. He said, “For Affiliated Monitors this refreshed approach by DAG Monaco highlights the seriousness which businesses must place on the investment in their programs and in addressing what has for some been a negative experience with a monitor. For those who might be the subject of a monitorship, DAG Monaco recognized that the negativity that has sometimes surrounded monitorships as being punitive, should be seen in a different light bringing value, pointing a way forward and as a solution which has had great success in resolving matters.”
Monaco’s remarks should be studied by every compliance professional as they portend a very large change in the way the Department of Justice (DOJ) will utilize monitors going forward. Over this podcast series, sponsored by AMI, we have considered why DAG Monaco’s remarks herald a new era for monitorships from a variety of perspectives. Bethany Hengsbach discussed this change in monitorships from the white-collar enforcement and defense perspective. Mikhail Reider-Gordon looked at global aspects of the new DOJ monitor’s focus. Cristina Revelo discussed how ethics and compliance (E&C) assessments help drive more compliant companies. Jesse Caplan, Managing Director of Corporate Oversight, brought his views on the twin topics of antitrust and healthcare compliance. We conclude the series in Part 5, with AMI founder Vin DiCianni who takes a look down the road where monitorships are going in 2022 and beyond.
DiCianni heard a couple of different things in the Monaco Speech as they related to monitors. First, monitoring now has been around for quite some time. The DOJ used it historically with much greater frequency under prior administrations. DiCianni believes, “It works, so why not go back to a sanction that can help companies improve? And when you think about it, that’s what a monitorship is. It’s allowing the entity to stay in business, you know, to remain viable through, an independent monitor.” The Monaco Speech simply recognized the use of monitorships is a very good tool for DOJ to use.
Second, the Monaco Speech recognized companies are “perhaps becoming a little bit more lax about compliance, notwithstanding the DOJ guidance that has come out over the years.” DiCianni believes the Monaco Speech reinvigorated the point that companies need to go back and look at their compliance programs. Yet the reality is that it is sometimes hard for a company to make that type of dispassionate analysis. An independent monitor can assist in that process by looking at, for instance, your E&C program and controls around compliance.
Another key insight from the Monaco Speech was that going forward monitors would not be viewed as punitive, and they would not act as prosecutors. Here DiCianni noted, “I think the evolution of monitoring, and it’s an evolution and it’s continuing to evolve, has included consideration that the monitor is not simply an arm of the government.” He believes that the government saying to the monitor, “be a mentor, tell them how to fix them. You’ve seen it, compare it to other companies.” Once the settlement agreement is in place, “the whole notion is let’s fix this. I think that that’s crucial to this whole notion of how monitorships have evolved, because it’s no longer just, you know, a check the box. Are they doing this, doing that now it’s make recommendations on improvement and let’s see if the company make those changes.”
We considered the types of monitors and the types of skills a monitorship needs. It all begins with the settlement agreement, whether it is a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) or other form of resolution. A monitor must have the necessary skills to be able to look at things like business development, so they can understand how a company is going after business? Another growing area is in data analytics, as sometimes the monitorship is driven by data. This could require the monitor to have a data analytics team that can analyze test and look at data in various ways. Sometimes you do need forensic accounting. Sometimes you need an expert in healthcare when the monitorship is dealing with issues such as coding and billing. The AMI approach is to “shape each monitorship to make sure that we have a team that has the various perspectives, what would the government be looking for, but equally importantly how can this be helpful to the entity? Those are the most successful monitorships that we have engaged in. I think that having that broader perspective as you approach a monitorship is crucial.”
I concluded by asking DiCianni where he saw monitors going down the road. DiCianni believes that the use of monitors will increase, in many different areas such as different non-governmental groups and agencies, federal government agencies, state, and municipal agencies. For instance, AMI works with attorney inspector generals, the World Bank and other organizations. They will continue to be used as a tool, as more agencies that have never used them before are starting to recognize the benefits of them. He stated, “I think monitorships are going to continue to grow. The fear that I have is the bad monitoring, where the monitor that does not understand what they are doing and does not know what type of issues to look at or the kinds of things that they should be looking at. This will give everybody a bad name in terms of monitoring.” He concluded, “if you’re going to put a monitor in place to make sure that the selection of the monitor is appropriate. But I think it’s going to be a growing opportunity for both regulators and businesses.”
Affiliated Monitors
Vin DiCianni
Tune in every quarter to learn how David Simon, a 53-year-old lawyer from the US, navigates the ancient world of Oxford University in pursuit of an MBA. David is a Partner at the white shoe law firm Foley and Lardner, who has dedicated his career to white collar compliance with a heavy international focus. “My practice touches a lot on some of the sanctions and international trade issues that typically come up on international matters,” he says. In A Yank in Oxford, David and host Tom Fox will talk about what inspired his decision to pursue an Executive MBA, and his hopes for where the journey may lead.
In this Episode 2, David discusses beginning his academic journey in his first quarter in the Oxford MBA program. Highlights include:
1. His classmates, exactly what he expected and one of the core value propositions of enterprise. The group is interesting, accomplished, diverse, engaged, and learning a ton from them.
2. David found that he can still do math – sort of. He has completed his Analytics class, finding it tough, but useful to understand. He also discusses that he has already seen an improvement in his decision making. Cognitive bias that impacts our decision making. Lawyer decision making is particularly vulnerable to distortion via bias. Importance of slowing down, adding process. Inherently non-lawyerly. Poor team construction on legal matters. Ways to really improve it.
3. He has been exposed to some different perspectives on corruption, interesting from non-lawyers in emerging markets.
4. He concludes by detailing what he termed some “Fun Oxford stuff”; including the College system and experience at Keble, rowing on the Thames as a team building exercise, participating in a formal dinner at Balliol College, which he found like a scene from Harry Potter and concludes with some thoughts about an old guy living in a dorm.
The Perfect Storm – PRIIPs and SFDR in 2022
In this episode, CSS’s Chief Product Officer Ronan Brennan makes predictions for PRIIPs and how the regulatory landscape in 2022 with PRIIPs and SFDR is reminiscent of 2018 with the implementation of PRIIPs and MiFID II.
About Our Guest Speakers:
Ronan Brennan is the Chief Product Officer at Compliance Solutions Strategies (CSS). In his role, he has direct responsibility for the strategic evolution of the global suite of CSS products and regulatory content. Managing product in CSS involves ensuring the product suite is ready to support both the current and future compliance management and regulatory reporting needs of investment management and advisory firms globally. Ronan participates as a speaker in many industry events each year, in addition to publishing a company blog and development of thought leadership materials. Ronan has 26 years of experience in the technology sector, 21 of which have been spent in the investment data management and regulatory reporting space.
Natalie Silverman serves as CSS’s Chief Marketing Officer. A leading FinTech specialist, Natalie has over 18 years of go-to-market and strategic expertise in financial services, SaaS, media and news. Most recently she has helped to build innovation labs across startups and enterprises.
Welcome to a special five-part podcast series on how to unlock the gold in your program, hosted by Tom Fox with guests Gio and Nick Gallo from ComplianceLine. One of the ongoing issues in compliance is to demonstrate the Return on Investment (ROI) in your compliance program. One way to do so is by demonstrating the extended value of compliance literally across your entire company. When overlaid with an ESG component, you can begin to see the gold in your compliance hills. In addition to showing how you can unlock the gold in your own compliance hills, Gio and Nick walk you through how demonstrate ROI for your internal budgeting process which can provide to you the financial resource to strengthen and improve your compliance program.
Join us for the full 5 episodes and learn to see your compliance program in an entirely new light. In this concluding Part 5, we consider investments strategies for the compliance professional in the short and long term.
Some of the highlights of this episode include:
· What is Beta Investment and how does volatility work into overall compliance investment strategies?
· What is volatility and how a compliance professional can harness it for a compliance investment strategy?
· How to think about your growth curve.
· Investments in compliance to drive employee engagement and lower turnover.
Resources
Gio Gallo on LinkedIn
Nick Gallo on LinkedIn
