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Inside Counsel

Broker-Dealers Beware

Will Dodd-Frank change the standards of care that govern investment advice?
4 minute read

International Edition

FSA secures another high-profile conviction for insider dealing

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has secured a high-profile prosecution against a former Dresdner investment banker for insider dealing, in the latest crackdown on market abuse by the City regulator. Christian Littlewood has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison for eight counts of insider trading which occurred between 2000 and 2008 during his employment at Dresdner and most recently Shore Capital. During this time he accrued a total of £590,000 in relation to the charged offences.
3 minute read

Inside Counsel

Regulatory: President Obama's Regulatory Review

Recent review aims to determine if existing federal regulations restrict economic growth and job creation.
4 minute read

International Edition

A team of two - why GCs and chief compliance officers must work in tandem

The role of the chief compliance (and ethics) officer (CCO) is currently a hot, if confused topic. What does she do - ensure good process or enforce strict compliance? To whom does she report - general counsel/chief financial officer or to chief executive officer/board? What is her role in shaping the company's voluntary adoption of ethical standards beyond what the law requires? This issue has been thrust into high relief by regulators and enforcers who, in light of various scandals, want a more independent compliance function in corporations. For example, changes in the US federal sentencing guidelines would give corporations extra credit if the "specific individual" in the corporation with "day-to-day operational responsibility for the compliance and ethics programme" has direct access to the board of directors.
9 minute read

International Edition

Offshore: Keeping quiet

Like other well-regulated jurisdictions, Guernsey's money laundering regime requires, in broad terms, that when a financial services business (FSB) suspects that one of its clients may be involved in money laundering, it must make a suspicious transaction report (otherwise known as an STR) to the Financial Intelligence Service (FIS), a joint unit of the Guernsey Police and Customs & Immigration Department tasked with receiving and analysing STRs. Common sense suggests that the utility of the STR would be greatly reduced if the FSB, as the same time as making an STR, could inform the client that it had done so. The client could then act to frustrate any potential action which might be taken by the FIS. For that reason, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Financial Action Task Force (FATF), among its 40 recommendations, included a recommendation (number 14) that businesses should be prohibited by law from disclosing the fact that an STR had been made.
8 minute read

Corporate Counsel

Corruption Catch-22

Last year saw not only a continuing growth in the number of FCPA cases and of the fines and other penalties involved, but also a ...
1 minute read

Corporate Counsel

Food Safety Modernization Act Expands FDA Authority

New bill will mean more inspections and recall authority.
6 minute read

International Edition

£150m cap on fines for Tesco law breaches is 'too low', says SRA

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has challenged the £150m cap on Tesco law licensing breaches recently set out by the Legal Services Board (LSB). The SRA has questioned the maximum penalty recommended by the LSB last month, citing the miners' compensation case that saw 500 firms paid £1bn for acting for sick coalminers. A raft of firms involved later faced claims over their conduct in handling the work.
2 minute read

Inside Counsel

Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds

New York Times, Jan. 25, 2011
1 minute read

International Edition

OTC regulation must avoid introducing systemic risk

On 15 September 2010, exactly two years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the European Commission (EC) published its Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Over-The-Counter (OTC) Derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories. It is aimed at enhancing transparency, withstanding shocks of the credit default swaps and reducing the overall vulnerability of the counterparty credit risk. It will enter into force on 1 July 2012. The main goal of the proposal is the establishment of central counterparties (CCPs) for OTC derivatives clearance and the creation of trade repositories (TRs) responsible for gathering data to identify, early on, where imbalances may be building up. The scope of the regulation is wide, laying down uniform requirements covering financial counterparties, non-financial counterparties (exceeding certain thresholds) and all categories of OTC derivatives.
3 minute read

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