Tag:
Accountability
Latest Headlines
Latest Headlines
CEO signatures and Dodd-Frank
Over on FierceFinance , we noted recently that the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which has been tasked with finding ways to prevent another financial crisis, released a study recommending regulators mandate a 'public attestation' on Volcker Rule compliance. The idea is that forcing
SEC seeks more accountability over custody, accounting
One little noticed requirement in Dodd-Frank was that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which oversees most domestic audit activities, would take on an additional burden: oversight of the auditors of broker-dealers. The PCAOB is budgeting with more of this activity in mind. But this m
The real cost of improved audit and compensation committees
Boards historically have two main functions: to monitor corporate activity and to provide strategic advice. If you ask directors, the far majority will tell you the fun part of the job is to provide strategic advice. There may be some real "board" nerds, who like to stay abreast of the minutia
Should directors be accountable for all compliance activity?
More than 400 board members were surveyed about their feelings on various corporate governance issues at the recent Corporate Board Member and NYSE Euronext's Annual Boardroom Summit. Here's one interesting question:
Which of the following statements best reflects your views on the acco
Dodd-Frank and the compensation committee
On the surface, it looks like the Dodd-Frank financial reform law ( financial reform news) is a watershed moment in the effort to better disclose and force some accountability on compensation issues. Some have suggested the law will transform compensation committees in the same way that Sar
A barn burner of a trial coming?
The SEC is going all in. Or is it?
The agency has announced that it will "vigorously" pursue its case against Bank of America, seeking to prove that management failed to disclose material information regarding the payment of billions in bonuses at Merrill Lynch. The announcement generated
A better Bank of America settlement?
Jim Cramer suggests a better solution to the Bank of America settlement over its failure to alert shareholders that it had signed off on Merrill Lynch's massive bonus payments. Why not have Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis pay $33 million instead of the company? The suggestion gets at a fundamental i
History already unkind to Thain, Lewis
The media heavyweights are weighing in on the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch fiasco with lengthy retrospectives on what went wrong. The latest to publish: The New York Times. It offers a look that once again is unkind to the CEOs of both companies. Lewis looks bad for buying into a stinking mor
Will boards voluntarily upgrade themselves?
Sarbanes-Oxley transformed the work of corporate boards, imposing on them, in theory anyway, a whole new level of accountability. To some, this makes the financial meltdown that has engulfed so many companies all the more galling. "Where were the boards?" is a fair question (and it's posed in a co
The bailout runs into roadblocks
The historic bailout proposed by the Treasury has taken a political turn, but not in a partisan fashion. There are lots of Congressional skeptics of both stripes. The issue, frankly, is well made for anyone running for office, as it allows him or her to wax on from a populist perspective. There ar
