Tag: compliance

ESG and the Impact of the EU SFDR on U.S. Asset Managers

Post author By Coffee and Regs
Post date June 1, 2021
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ESG and the Impact of the EU SFDR on U.S. Asset Managers

In this episode, CSS’s Head of ESG Marye Cherry sits down with corporate attorney at Scale LLP, Adam Johnson to discuss the evolving ESG landscape from the U.S. perspective, including the impact of the EU SFDR on U.S. asset managers and the U.S. regulatory position on ESG.

About Our Guest Speakers:

Marye Cherry is the EU Regulatory Counsel and Head of ESG at Compliance Solutions Strategies (CSS). With more than 10 years of legal and compliance experience, Marye specializes in transparency and regulatory reporting issues in the financial services industry, including sensitive industries and ESG. At CSS, Marye focuses on European financial regulations that affect fund managers’ operations worldwide and helps translate those requirements into automated reporting solutions.

Adam Johnson advises individuals and institutions on investment and corporate law. He has more than twenty years of experience working with clients around the world on public and private investment vehicles, financial marketing and distribution, regulatory and governance issues, and capital markets transactions. He has worked with professional asset managers, high net worth individuals, and corporations in the public and private equity markets. He helps clients strategize on business development, negotiate complex agreements, navigate changing regulatory frameworks, address compliance obligations, and find efficient operational solutions. Working as both outside and in-house counsel, he has helped companies around the world meet their strategic business, corporate governance, and regulatory compliance challenges. Prior to Scale LLP, Adam advised business heads and senior management as a leader in the legal departments of publicly listed investment management firms. He has lived and worked in Asia and is proficient in Mandarin Chinese.

Tags asset management, compliance, ESG, financial services, fintech, investment management, regtech, regulations, regulatory compliance, SFDR, sustainable finance, sustainable investing

Daily Compliance News

May 27, 2021 the Shaken Not Stirred edition

Post author By admin
Post date May 27, 2021
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In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

SFO responds in ENRC suit against former counsel and SFO begins. (Reuters)
Dutch court orders Shell to cut carbon emissions. (BBC)
Amazon meets James Bond. (NYT)
Climate change activists win election to Exxon BOD. (WSJ)

Tags compliance

Coffee and Regs

Private Funds 101 – From SEC Registration to Compliance Rules

Post author By Coffee and Regs
Post date May 24, 2021
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Private Funds 101 – From SEC Registration to Compliance Rules

In this episode, CSS’s Director of Private Funds and a former SEC regulator, John Gentile sits down with Senior Vice President of Ultimus LeverPoint Private Fund Solutions, Andrew Jones to discuss the world of private fund managers. The round-robin discussion covers SEC registration to identifying as an Exempt Reporting Adviser, the impact of the new Marketing Rule on private funds and compliance best practices for fund admins.

About Our Guest Speakers:

John Gentile is responsible for overseeing various types of broker-dealer and investment adviser consulting engagements, including conducting SEC/FINRA internal control reviews, anti-money laundering testing, written supervisory policy and procedures testing, and other consultation services. John is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on various compliance topics, including “Effective Supervision,” “Large Firm Testing,” FINRA Supervisory Control Rules” and “Anti Money Laundering Requirements for Broker Dealers under the PATRIOT Act.” In 1987 John joined the SEC as a Securities Compliance Examiner, becoming a Branch Chief in 1991. He became Assistant Regional Director in 1993, supervising a team of 20 broker-dealer managers and examiners. He also planned and conducted financial, operational, and sales practice examinations of the largest broker dealers and was among those responsible for a review of hedge funds’ impact on broker dealer internal controls. Before joining the SEC, John was a Financial Damage Analyst with PaineWebber Inc. Most recently from 2000-2007 John was an Executive Consultant, Broker-Dealer Services, at National Regulatory Services. John has an MBA from Fordham University and a BS in Finance from Central Connecticut State University. From 1995 to 2002, John was also a member of the Securities Industry Continuing Education East Coast Content Committee.

Andrew Jones is the Senior Vice President for Ultimus LeverPoint Private Fund Solutions. He joined Ultimus in April 2018, and is responsible for overseeing the promotion and sales for private fund services. Andrew works closely with the executive team to provide a client-focused approach and collaborates with other industry professionals to provide a diverse network of solutions for Ultimus clients. He works in the Chicago, Illinois office. Before joining Ultimus, Andrew worked as Senior Vice President at Woodfield Fund Administration, LLC, where he was responsible for the development of new business, marketing, client relations, and implementations. He also served as head of Investor Services, overseeing the day-to-day operational functions for hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, real estate, and other clients. Andrew earned a bachelor’s degree in Business, Management, and Marketing from the University of Iowa, and has been working in the financial services industry since 2007.

Tags asset management, CCO, compliance, compliance management, compliance officers, financial services, fintech, investment management, regtech, regulations, regulatory compliance

This Week in FCPA

Episode 253 – the Back to Disneyland edition

Post author By admin
Post date May 21, 2021
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As the Rosen Family returns to DisneyLand, with Jay still podcasting from a still undisclosed location, he and Tom take a look at this week’s stories top compliance and ethics stories which caught their interest on This Week in FCPA in the Back to DisneyLand edition.
Stories

$28MM whistleblower award in FCPA case. Menqui Sun in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. SEC Press Release.
Will investigations on China become even more difficult? Helen Hwang and Eric Carlson in the FCPA Blog.
Ephemeral messaging guidelines. Rebecca Cronin in JDSupra.
What is moral equilibrium? Vera Cherepanova in the FCPA Blog.
Great series on the VW monitorship. Aly McDevitt in Compliance Week Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 (sub req’d).
Using neuroscience in leadership. Dr. David Rock in Flexworks.
Corruption and soccer. In Risk and Compliance Platform Europe.
Underarmour settles EC charges. Mike Volkov in Corruption, Crime and Compliance.
How do you mind the data gap? SEC Commish Caroline Crenshaw in the Havard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
Judge admonishes Paul Wiess and Alex Oh. Mike Volkov comments in Corruption Crime and Compliance.

Podcasts and Events

In this episode of Survive and Thrive, Tom and Korney Nordum discuss how to naviage an SEC review of your Code of Conduct.
In the most recent episode of Integrity Through Compliance, recorded before the recent Colonial Pipeline Ransomware attack, Affiliated Monitors, Inc.’s MD Dionne Lomax, sat down with Dentons’ Kelly Graf to discuss Privacy and Cybersecurity Issues for 2021 and Beyond. Now that cybersecurity is in the news more than ever, this conversation couldn’t be more relevant. Check it out here.
In a special K2 Integrity Matters podcast, Tom visits with Gabe Hidalgo on the latest on cryptocurrencies and their issues.
Join K2 Integrity’s team on the latest DOLFIN Webinar: Ask an Expert FINQuiry on High-Risk Banking. Chip Poncy, Gabe Hidalgo, Gail Fuller, and Archana Bea will lead the discussion on high-risk banking, businesses, and products; emerging risks in the virtual assets space; and financial crime risk management for fintechs. Learn more and register here.
Tom announces his latest book, The Compliance Handbook, 2^nd edition is available for presale purchase. Use the code FOX25 and go here. The Compliance Handbook 2^ndedition will be available in both print and eBook editions. This week on The Compliance Handbook podcast, Eric Young joins Tom for a deep dive into the role of internal controls in a best practices compliance program.

Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.

Tags compliance

Coffee and Regs

Special Episode: Spotlighting the Expect Miracles Foundation & Social Distance Challenge

Post author By Coffee and Regs
Post date May 20, 2021
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Special Episode: Spotlighting the Expect Miracles Foundation & Social Distance Challenge

In this special episode, CSS’s Chief Revenue Officer Terence Faherty takes a break from compliance and sits down with the Managing Director of Stewardship at the Expect Miracles Foundation and Founder of The SamFund, Samantha Watson to talk about a dedicated commitment of the financial services community to bring meaningful resources to research and people impacted by cancer.

About Our Guest Speakers:

Terence Faherty has over 30 years’ experience in the financial technology, regulatory and banking industry living and working throughout the US and UK. Mr. Faherty is currently Chief Revenue Officer for Compliance Solutions Strategies (CSS). Previously, he was VP, General Manager for Broadridge’s revenue and expense management solutions focusing on helping clients apply solutions to help with transparency, efficiency and compliance in the Capital Markets/Trading arena. Mr. Faherty’s experience includes Managing Director of middle and back office technology companies, Milestone and MultiFonds. Mr. Faherty spent 12 years at SunGard BancWare as President and COO focusing on risk management, regulatory compliance and Basle II.

Samantha Watson is the Managing Director of Stewardship at the Expect Miracles Foundation and Founder of The SamFund. Sam is also a two-time young adult cancer survivor, diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma in December of 1999 and with secondary Myelodysplastic Syndrome in April of 2001. She is proud to be an active member of the cancer community and a passionate advocate for young adult survivors throughout the country. Sam holds a BA from Brandeis University and an MBA in Mission-Driven Management from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis.

Tags asset management, compliance, financial services, fintech, investment management, regtech, regulations, regulatory compliance

Everything Compliance

Episode 80, the Vaccinated edition

Post author By admin
Post date May 20, 2021
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Welcome to the only roundtable podcast in compliance. Today, we have a quartet of Matt Kelly, Jonathan Marks, Jonathan Armstrong and Jay Rosen for a deep dive into plethora of compliance topics. We end with a veritable mélange of rants and shouts outs.

Jonathan ArmstrongJonathan Armstrong reflects on the SFO’s 0-11 record in trying individuals, after corp DPAs have been signed. Armstrong delivers a shout out to the BBC for their podcast series Lazarus Heist.
Jonathan Marks talks about the intersection of governance, fraud and corporate culture. Marks has his most epic rant ever, directed at Bob Baffert who claims he has no idea how his Kentucky Derby winning horse was drugged.
Jay Rosen reviews a recent AMI, Integrity Through Compliance podcast on healthcare issues in 2021. Rosen shouts out to the GOAT Tom Brady and his return to New England in the 4^th game of the 2021 NFL season.
Matt Kelly discusses the recent Biden Administration Executive Order on Cybersecurity. Kelly shouts out to Moderna for its covid vaccine.
Tom Fox shouts out to the 10,000 New York Yankee fans who so voraciously berated the Houston Astros as cheaters during a recent trip to Yankee Stadium that it hurt the feelings of those same cheaters.

Additional Resources:
Matt Kelly blog post on Radical Compliance, Parsing Biden’s Cybersecurity Order
See Cordery Compliance Client Alert, SFO Loses another case
Listen to the AMI podcast Integrity Through Compliance: Episode 8: From Business Opportunities to Compliance Risks: Healthcare Expectations in 2021
Jonathan Marks blog post on Board and Fraud, Governance, Fraud, and Corporate Culture: Sorting Through a Complicated Relationship
The members of the Everything Compliance are:

Jay Rosen– Jay is Vice President, Business Development Corporate Monitoring at Affiliated Monitors. Rosen can be reached at JRosen@affiliatedmonitors.com
Mike Volkov – One of the top FCPA commentators and practitioners around and the Chief Executive Officer of The Volkov Law Group, LLC. Volkov can be reached at mvolkov@volkovlawgroup.com
Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com
Jonathan Armstrong –is our UK colleague, who is an experienced data privacy/data protection lawyer with Cordery in London. Armstrong can be reached at armstrong@corderycompliance.com
Jonathan Marks is Partner, Firm Practice Leader – Global Forensic, Compliance & Integrity Services at Baker Tilly. Marks can be reached at marks@bakertilly.com

The host and producer, ranter (and sometime panelist) of Everything Compliance is Tom Fox the Voice of Compliance. He can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.

Tags compliance

This Week in FCPA

Episode 252 – the Musk and Bitcoin edition

Post author By admin
Post date May 14, 2021
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Bitcoin goes on a wild ride this week with its buddy, Elon Musk. With Jay podcasting from a still undisclosed location, he and Tom take a look at this week’s stories top compliance and ethics stories which caught their interest on This Week in FCPA in the Musk and Bitcoin edition.
Stories
1.     Of Elon Musk, Bitcoin and Uturns. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance. Tom and Matt in Compliance into the Weeds. Andrew Ross Sorkin in Dealbook. On SNL here.
2.     Benchmark with the Walmart Global ABC policy.  Harry Cassin in the FCPA Blog.
3.     Closing the moral hazard gap. Jeff Kaplan in the FCPA Blog.
4.     Boards and cybersecurity oversight. Wachtell lawyers, John F. Savarese, Sarah K. Eddy, and Sabastian Niles in the NYU Corruption and Enforcement Blog.
5.     You are ready for th EU Whistleblower Directive? Neil Hodge in in Compliance Week (sub req’d)
6.     Are companies serious about Diversity & Inclusion? Henry Kronk in CCI.
7.     Who are a CCOs most important resource (Hint: it’s customers). Steve Chapman in Navex Global’s Ethics and Compliance Matters Blog.
8.     What happens when whistleblowers joust over an award? Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance.
9.     Do you have a mindset of respect? Sam Silverstein in the Accountability Blog.
10.  How does ESG serve investors? Lawrence Heim in PracticalESG.com.
Podcasts and Events
11.  Check out the 5-part podcast series this week sponsored by K2 Integrity. We consider the intersection of Compliance, Diligence and M&A. Part 1-Core Diligence, Part 2-Current state of M&A; Part 3-Avoiding Reputational Issues, Part 4-Global M&A issues, Part 5-Post-acquistion integration.
12.  In the most recent episode of Integrity Through Compliance, Jesse Caplan, Dionne Lomax and Jim Anilot discuss “From Business Opportunities to Compliance Risks: Health Expectations in 2021”. Check it out here.
13.  In a special two-part series, Tom visits with Joey Seeber, CEO of Level Legal. They discuss alternative legal services providers and the Baylor Bears 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. Part 1 and Part 2.
14.  CCI releases a new eBook, The FCPA Year in Review by the Compliance Evangelist, Tom Fox. You can obtain a copy here.  Best of all its available at no charge.
15.  Tom announces his latest book, The Compliance Handbook, 2nd edition is available for presale purchase. Use the code FOX25 and go here. The Compliance Handbook 2nd edition will be available in both print and eBook editions. This week on The Compliance Handbook podcast, Eric Young joins Tom for a deep dive into the role of internal controls in a best practices compliance program.
Tom Fox is the Voice of Compliance and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.

Tags compliance

Coffee and Regs

The Facts on FINRA & Capital Acquisition Brokers

Post author By Coffee and Regs
Post date May 10, 2021
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The Facts on FINRA & Capital Acquisition Brokers

In this episode, CSS’s Director of Broker-Dealer Services and a former regulator, John Gentile and Executive Director, Jackie Hallihan sit down to discuss FINRA’s rule book regarding capital acquisition brokers. These are broker-dealers that limit their business to certain capital raising, mergers and acquisitions and corporate financing activities, so before you go down that regulatory path, it’s important to understand the rules and the benefits of CAB registration.

About Our Guest Speakers:

Jackie Hallihan is the Co-Executive Director of CSS’s Compliance Services team and has over 25 years’ regulatory and risk management experience. She was the founder of National Regulatory Services (NRS) which started the compliance resource business and served as its President for over 20 years. She also founded the National Society of Compliance Professionals (NSCP), a non-profit organization for compliance officers, staff and lawyers serving the compliance industry. It now boasts over 2000 memberships. Jackie has been a leading speaker to compliance professionals, including in-house training programs and various other industry association conferences, and has received numerous industry awards. Jackie also serves as Director, Clerk of the New England Broker Dealer Investment Adviser Association (NEBDIAA), a non-profit organization, incorporated in 1997. The purpose of NEBDIAA is to provide a forum for the professional exchange of information among investment advisers, broker dealers, and persons who provide services to investment advisers and broker dealers, and to direct communication among its members which will improve their ability to serve the needs of their respective clients. The forum will help NEBDIAA’s members meet the increased regulatory demands placed on investment advisers, broker dealers, and persons who provide services to investment advisers and broker-dealers.