by Geert Vermeulen

Often ethics & compliance officers only end up in the news when things have gone wrong. Many people don’t realise that ethics & compliance officers also prevent numerous crimes and unethical practices, sometimes at the risk of being fired or by risking our health or even our lives. Usually you don’t hear about these cases. Therefore, I decided to share a couple WOW moments in compliance.  The first part of this series of articles was about due diligence in the aviation industry and the second part that was published last week discussed due diligence in the energy industry. The third section will seek to discuss change of strategy.  Continue reading…

by Geert Vermeulen

Often ethics & compliance officers only end up in the news when things have gone wrong. Many people don’t realise that ethics & compliance officers also prevent numerous crimes and unethical practices, sometimes at the risk of being fired or by risking our health or even our lives. Usually you don’t hear about these cases. Therefore, I decided to share a couple WOW moments in compliance.The first part of the article that has been published last week discussed the case study of due diligence in the aviation industry. Now, in this second part, another example will be discussed, which is that of due diligence in the energy industry. Continue reading…

by Geert Vermeulen

This article is the first of a series of five articles and will be published in five parts. The second part will be published next week. Often ethics & compliance officers only end up in the news when things have gone wrong. Like in the recent money laundering scandals in the banking industry. In many of these cases, it was actually the management that decided that doing business was more important than being compliant and didn’t invest sufficiently in proper compliance controls and resources. Many people don’t realise that ethics & compliance officers also prevent numerous crimes. Continue reading…

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges against Guy S. Griffithe and Robert W. Russell, and three companies they controlled, for an alleged scheme that defrauded investors who thought they were purchasing interests in a Washington-licensed recreational cannabis company out of approximately $4.85 million. The SEC’s complaint alleges that between August 2015 and December 2017, Griffithe, of California, used Renewable Technologies Solution, Inc., an entity he controlled, to sell investors purported ownership interests in SMRB LLC, a Washington company owned by Russell that held a license to grow marijuana under the state’s recreational cannabis laws.

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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently brought attention to the fact that it is going to disallow the mass marketing of speculative mini-bonds to retail customers. The ban by FCA is said to be introduced without consultation and is expected to go into effect on January 1 2020 for a duration of 12 months. As of recent, this is a restriction, but the FCA also intends to discuss the formation of lasting rules concerning the ban. Continue reading…

The Bank of England (the Bank), Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have today published a shared policy summary and co-ordinated consultation papers (CPs) on new requirements to strengthen operational resilience in the financial services sector. Building the operational resilience of firms and Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs) is a shared priority for the three supervisory authorities. The co-ordinated CPs build on the concepts set out in the operational resilience Discussion Paper published by the authorities last year, addressing many of the proposed policy changes based on the responses we received. Continue reading…

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has launched a substantial and ambitious revision to the UK Stewardship Code. The new Code substantially raises expectations for how money is invested on behalf of UK savers and pensioners. In particular, the new Code establishes a clear benchmark for stewardship as the responsible allocation, management and oversight of capital to create long-term value for clients and beneficiaries leading to sustainable benefits for the economy, the environment and society.

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by Bob Goulooze

In order to create economies of scale, national airline companies are looking for partners, preferably equal ones, but certainly ones that may complement the current services of the flag carrier. In 2004, Air France (AF) merged with KLM and troubles have arisen since then. AF is the biggest partner in the joint venture with KLM and claimed the lead from day one. Those who are familiar with the way the French work couldn’t believe in the first place that this would be a match made in heaven. The French have the patronage system, which is a social unequal relationship between a powerful and less powerful partner. The powerful ‘patron’ renders favors to the subservient one in return for services, adherence, and homage. You don’t have to be culturally savvy to understand that such a patronage relationship is so un-Dutch, at least being at the receiving end. The Dutch have a more equal culture in which reaching consensus is the bottom line.
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by Elina Karpacheva

The future is in digitalisation of financial services. Traditional financial institutions are changing under the disruptive technology that stems from the FinTech sector. Banks, lending, payment, e-money companies, and investment firms have embraced new business models and opportunities for growth by partnering with providers of technology-enabled services. Outsourcing of business activities as a strategy proved value maximising for the financial industry. Continue reading…

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it took a significant step toward establishing the regulatory regime for security-based swap dealers by adopting a package of rules and rule amendments under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). These actions establish recordkeeping and reporting requirements for security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants and amend the recordkeeping and reporting requirements for broker-dealers. Under these rules, these companies will be required to create and retain fundamental business records to document and track their operations, facilitating the Commission’s ability to monitor compliance and reducing risk to the market.

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