Yesterday, I was excited to see that the World’s Most Ethical Companies for 2010 had outperformed the S&P 500. Ethisphere went back five years and charted the performance. They found a 53% return for the 2010 class of companies, compared to a 4% return in the S&P. The hindsight of looking back on the performance … Read more »
Daimler Charged with FCPA Violations
Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, has been charged with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Department of Justice accuses the company of engaging in a long-standing practice of paying bribes worth tens of millions of dollars to foreign officials in over 22 countries. There is an April 1 hearing in U.S. … Read more »
Financial Overhaul Moves Forward
With the health care reform now out of the hands of Congress, there is now movement with financial overhaul. Senator Dodd introduced the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 last week without a Republican co-sponsor [Dodd Goes Solo]. Instead plugging in amendments, the Senate Banking Committee voted on straight party lines to advance the … Read more »
World’s Most Ethical Companies 2010 Edition
Ethisphere Institute just announced its list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for 2010. Of the 100 companies on their list, 26 are new to the list. The sole winner for the real estate industry is Jones Lang LaSalle. For the financial services industry there were three companies: American Express, The Hartford and The Principal Financial … Read more »
SEC Warns Firms on Muni Pay-to-Play Rules
While sources are wallowing in the exposure of a political figure in a “pay to play” scandal, I thought there might be some lessons for other investment managers as states and perhaps the SEC roll out limitations on political contributions. The original story seemed mildly interesting. The SEC warned firms that municipal securities rules prohibiting … Read more »
Video Interview with SEC Chair Mary Schapiro
Charles Lane of the Washington Post has this video interview with SEC Chair Mary Schapiro. She talks about the “craziest year of her life.” Read more »
Compliance Bits and Pieces for March 19
Here are some compliance related stories from the past week: Securities Docket Radio: Available Free on iTunes Securities Docket Radio is now available as a free download on iTunes! To listen to or download the debut program featuring Bruce Carton’s interview with Sanjay Wadhwa, Deputy Chief of the SEC’s new Market Abuse Unit, please click … Read more »
Did you “Make” an Untrue Statement under 10b-5?
The First Circuit threw out the SEC’s 10b-5(b) claim in SEC v. Tambone. This time it was the entire court after an earlier decision of a three judge panel reached the opposite decision. The SEC alleged that James Tambone and Robert Hussey engaged in fraud in connection with the sale of mutual fund shares tied to … Read more »
Bentley CS 299
I spent some time this afternoon with Mark Frydenberg‘s class at Bentley University: CS 299 Web 2.0 – Technology, Strategy, and Community. I talked about my perspective on Web 2.0, trying to show how 2.0 tools can be used to help you organize the information you need to do your job better and develop yourself … Read more »
Implementing Compliance Practices for Social Media
I was in the audience for FINRA’s latest educational Program: Implementing Compliance Practices for Social Media. This program addressed implementation of new guidance that FINRA recently issued in Regulatory Notice 10-06, concerning social media. Resources and Supplementary Material (.pdf) Slide deck (.pdf) These are my notes, live from the program (& riddled with typos): Introduction … Read more »