Tag: EU

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This Week in FCPA

Episode 291 – The Rams Win It All Edition


Super Sunday passed with fun but poorly played, poorly officiated, and poorly coached. Tom and Jay are back to look at some of the week’s top compliance and ethics stories this week in the Rams Win It All Edition.
Stories

  1. Ericsson is in more FCPA trouble. Mengqi Sun in the WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal. Aaron Nicodemus in Compliance Week. (sub req’d)
  2. DD impeding compliance in developing markets? Katya Lysova explores in the FCPA Blog.
  3. ESG-no longer a nice to have. Karen Alonardo in Risk and Compliance Matters.   
  4. State AGs are waiting. Ashley Taylor and Chris Carlson in CCI.  
  5. The latest case on CCO liability. Matt Kelly in Radical Compliance. 
  6. Broken windows and compliance enforcement. Anthony O’Reilly in Compliance and Enforcement. 
  7. Companies yet again ask the EU for rules around ESG. Lawrence Heim inpracticalESG.
  8. White-collar enforcement trends in 2021. Jamie Rosenberg in Grand Jury Target.  
  9. HP-Autonomy from the auditors’ perspective. Francine McKenna in The Dig. 
  10. South African courts deny Zuma’s attempt to remove the SA corruption prosecutor. Rick Messick in GAB.  

Podcasts and More

  1. In February on The Compliance Life, I visited Ellen Smith, a former Director of Trade Compliance who recently started her consulting firm. In Part 1, she discussed her academic background and early professional career. In Part 2, Ellen discussed her move in-house. In Part 3, Ellen discusses being a part of the Compliance Dream Team at Weatherford.
  2. Tom and Richard Lummis are in the middle of their annual review of Best Picturing winning movies on 12 O’Clock High, a podcast on business leadership. Part 1 reviews Schindler’s List for leadership and ethical lessons. In Part 2, the look at Gladiator.
  3. CCI releases a new e-book from Mike Volkov, “Compliance Culture Revolution.” Available free from CCI.
  4. Tom looks at some innovation in compliance with a 3-part blog post series in the FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog. Topics include Compliance Ecosystem Governance, Compliance Branding, Building Culture & Compliance Coaching.
  5. Are you a Star Wars fan? How about an uber-Geek? You will love the 5-part series appearing next week on the Greeting and Felicitations podcast series on the Compliance Podcast Network if you are either or both. In this series, Tom visits astrophysicist Dr. Ben Locwin on the following topics: Traveling in Hyperspace, Fighting with a Light Saber, Mechanical Prosthetics, Cyborgs and Robots, and the Death Star. It is a ton of fun, and you will love it. Each episode will post at 10 each day next week. Check it out daily. 

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.  

Categories
ESG Compliance Podcast

Exploring ESG from the European Perspective with Bryan Sillaman


Bryan Sillaman, Head of the Paris office of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, returns to the show to share the breadth and scope of some of the regulatory frameworks already in place, what the green taxonomy is all about and how it relates to an overall ESG program. 
 ▶️ Exploring ESG from the European Perspective with Bryan Sillaman.
Key points discussed in the episode:
(00:30) Bryan Sillaman shares his current practice and interesting evolution from a white-collar defense lawyer to an ESG aficionado.
(01:28) The key differences in the regulatory approach to ESG between the EU and US.
(02:34) The robust and rigorous exercise at a scientific and technical level to define sustainable activity versus not generating different opinions & viewpoints. Bryan expects this lengthy process in the EU in 2021 to become a lot more in 2022.
 (03:49): The EU has been ahead a bit on the front where the United States is in terms of the ESG regulatory approach. Sillaman shares that this is part of what’s driven by the regulatory framework, but even more so, as companies face pressure from their investors, employees, unions, NGOs and various stakeholders.
(05:04): Companies claim to be involved in sustainable activities but not really involved. And it comes back to the concern of greenwashing and establishing the taxonomy set out to define at a technical and scientific level what is sustainable and what is not.
(08:07) The sustainable financial disclosure regulation and its operation into an overall ESG framework. It requires asset managers as financial market participants to first disclose how much of their activities are aligned with the taxonomy.
(09:19) The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and how it fits in.
(10:50) With directives defined, Bryan shares where he sees EU reporting standards for ESG headed and envisioned as the technical criteria will evolve over time. 
(12:57) ESG has become a really top-of-mind issue for many companies and institutions. Sillaman shares that this is part of what’s driven by the regulatory framework, but even more so, as companies face pressure from their investors, employees, unions, NGOs and various stakeholders. 
(14:13) Interesting trends for 2022 following the regulatory Bryan cites interesting cases and lawsuits brought by NGOs to pursue reductions in carbon emissions and other damages against companies. 
(17:30) Several countries pass enhanced disclosure and due diligence requirements on the supply chain, and companies are operating in their jurisdiction focus on human rights issues. 
(19:20) The S or social aspect part of ESG gets more attention, perhaps not as much as the environmental or E piece that focuses on gender issues
(20:36) A company that wants to start an ESG Program should first figure out who the key stakeholders are. It covers a broad set of issues that naturally implicates a lot of different stakeholders within the company.
Bryan J. Sillaman is Managing Partner of the firm’s Paris office. During his time at Hughes Hubbard, Bryan has counseled clients across a range of governance and compliance issues, including the development of policies and procedures, due diligence relating to third-parties and joint venture partners, and internal reviews and audits of their global operations. Bryan has spent significant time advising clients in connection with independent corporate monitorships and has traveled extensively in connection with his activities, including to Angola, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Middle East, Nigeria, Russia, Thailand and Venezuela. 
Prior to joining Hughes Hubbard, Bryan was an attorney in the Division of Enforcement of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) where he earned a Division Director Award. 
Connect: bryan.sillaman@hugheshubbard.com
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Do you have a podcast (or do you want to)? Join the only network dedicated to compliance, risk management, and business ethics, the Compliance Podcast Network. For more information, contact Tom Fox at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.
 

Categories
Compliance Kitchen

EU Prohibits Political Disinformation


EU to establish sanctions regime against foreign State actors for spreading political disinformation.

Categories
Daily Compliance News

January 27, 2022 the Big Papi Edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • Intel overturns $1.2 EU anti-trust fine. (WSJ)
  • PED users kept out of HOF (or not). (ESPN)
  • TI-CPI released. (Compliance Week)
  • J&J attempt to punish whistleblowers quashed. (Reuters)
Categories
Compliance Kitchen

EU Sanctions on Mali


EU amends its sanctions regime to issue autonomous restrictions on Mali.

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The ESG Report

ESG-Risk, Opportunity and Positive Impact with Cécilia Fellouse-Guenkel


 
Cécilia Fellouse-Guenkel is a well-known compliance practitioner in France. She and Tom Fox have worked together in live as well as virtual conferences. She moved into the compliance industry when she joined a medical device company in the US. Since then, she says, compliance has been her passion. She eventually opened her own compliance consulting business, called Compliance For Good. The name of her company signifies that compliance is not only for the greater good, but for the long term. She and Tom talk about the evolution of ESG and how it has a positive impact on companies as well as the wider community.
 

 
Evolution of ESG
Tom asks, “How have you seen ESG evolve in Europe and the EU over the past few years?” Cécilia responds that ESG is a broad notion, many aspects of which have existed for quite some time. “I guess what’s changed now with ESG is on the one hand, how the investment and the financial world have been behaving recently,” she remarks. ESG-oriented investments have increased to the tune of US$30 trillion in recent times. Financial institutions are now willing to put a price tag on companies’ ESG efforts based on KPIs, which is an area compliance professionals are experts in. She discusses the strict ESG regulations in France and the EU – particularly the Duty of Care Act and the SFDR mandates respectively – which she says are catapulting ESG into the limelight as a critical issue for companies and compliance professionals. She and Tom talk about the impact on companies’ supply chain and the disquiet some stakeholders feel about these new regulations because of the presumption of responsibility now placed on businesses. 
 
A Holistic Conversation
What advice are you giving your clients about ESG, Tom asks Cécilia. Companies come to her with questions about the Duty of Care law and other ESG regulations. “What I love the most is to make it a more holistic conversation, a global conversation,” she tells Tom. She shows her clients how they can achieve both an impact analysis and Duty of Care plan at the same time. “What I like about ESG is that it’s a shift for compliance people going from mostly looking at the risks … ESG is also looking at the positive aspects. So it’s really risk, opportunity and positive impact,” Cécilia comments. The conversation immediately becomes more strategic, efficient and helpful when you take this perspective, she adds. Boards also are more willing to listen. She emphasizes that this type of holistic approach is not new to compliance officers: another reason they are in a good position to lead the conversation around ESG.
 
Value of Compliance in ESG
A recent report by McKinsey explains the impact ESG has on a company’s profitability, including lower risk of sanctions, higher employee retention, and attracting potential talent. Cécilia says that compliance professionals should make sure they’re part of the conversation. She shares practical advice from two books. Tom comments that some compliance professionals don’t feel as comfortable with the E of ESG, as they believe they lack technical skills in that area. He asks Cécilia to share her thoughts on the subject. Even though the environmental aspect is a technical area, she remarks, compliance officers can still offer their expertise, such as in monitoring and standardizing KPIs. Another key area where compliance has valuable expertise is in third-party risk management.
 
ESG Into the Future
Cécilia wants compliance professionals to jump on the ESG train in the future. “It’s where we belong,” she tells Tom, “in the strategic sphere and the strategic role of ethics and compliance.” She likes Allison Taylor’s idea of the CCO as the Chief Integrity Officer. She is also hoping for more standard KPIs to move the industry forward. 
 
Resources
Cécilia Fellouse-Guenkel on LinkedIn 
 

Categories
Compliance Kitchen

EU Regulation of Big Tech


Regulating “big tech” – EU to level competition playing field in the digital space

Categories
Daily Compliance News

December 2, 2021 the Verifiable Proof Edition


In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:

  • EU wants ‘verifiable proof’ Peng is safe. (com)
  • Corruption preventing Texas from fixing its broken power grid. (MSNBC)
  • Elizabeth Holmes admits ‘mistakes were made’ even by her. (NYT)
  • Myanmar lays out new corruption charges. (CNN)
Categories
Compliance Kitchen

EU and Dual Use Sanctions


The EU issued its new and updated dual use items export regulations and The Kitchen took a look at the main points.

Categories
Coffee and Regs

Mythbusting ESG & FAQs Part 1

Mythbusting ESG & FAQs Part 1

 
In this episode of a special two-part series on ESG, CSS’s Regulatory Content Manager, Greg Hotaling and ESG Specialist, Marye Cherry demystify the complicated world of ESG including the latest regulatory developments, the complexity of ESG data, and what ESG actually means for investment managers.
 

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.
 

 

 
Greg Hotaling is a Regulatory Content Manager at CSS, addressing global regulatory matters relevant to the financial industry. Since its inception, Greg has led the regulatory research and content team for CSS’s global Investment Monitoring platform that facilitates compliance with shareholder disclosure and position limit rules around the world