Charles Serocold

On November 3, 2020, California voters passed Proposition 24, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which would amend and expand the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) – which itself only went into effect on 1st January 2020. The substantial provisions of CPRA goes into effect on January 1, 2023 and would apply to personal information collected on or after January 1, 2022. Enforcement is expected to begin on July 1, 2023.

CCPA – a regulation inspired in many ways by the European...

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT FIRMS’ COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS FOR 2017

INTRODUCTION
As a reminder to readers, under rule 206(4) of the Investment Advisers Act 1940, investment advisers must have a Compliance Program (the ‘Program’) that includes:

(i) Written compliance policies and procedures
(ii) A Chief Compliance Officer, and
(iii) An annual review of the adequacy and implementation of the Compliance Program

A key point regularly meted out by the SEC is the importance of building and improving...

The off-balance sheet accounting world has been rife with controversy since the late 1990’s, escalating with the Enron bankruptcy in 2001. As a result, in 2005, the SEC identified leasing as a form of off-balance sheet accounting that needed addressing and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have been working together to reach an appropriate solution. While FASB and the IASB have not, as yet, managed to agree on how and when...

It’s no secret that it has become increasingly difficult for multinational banks to manage their compliance programs, and this is largely due to the fact that they are engaged in so many business and service lines. Since 2004, regulatory updates have increased from around 10 a day to nearly 200. One might expect this regulatory burden to have hampered banks from retaining their spirit of innovation. However, they continue to identify profitable new jurisdictions (Thailand, Chile, etc.) and...

Introduction

Scandals such as Enron, Worldcom, Arthur Andersen, and the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme have cast the whistleblower as a type of David - a principled warrior defending the values of justice - against Goliath, the arrogant, proud behemoth.

Yet, as with most fables of an apocryphal nature, the reality is a more complex intrigue – and there are many cases of senior executives turning a blind eye, or choosing to take their leave of the denigrated company before any such...