N.Y., Banks Reach Deal Over New IM Service

The New York State Department of Financial Services has reached an agreement with four major banks that addresses the regulator’s concerns over their use of the new Symphony instant-messaging system.Under the agreement, Symphony will retain for seven years a copy of all e-communications sent thro...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 14, 2015

Bankrate Settles SEC’s Accounting Fraud Charges for $15 Million

Bankrate, the online publisher of personal finance information, has agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $15 million to settle accounting fraud charges that include fabricating revenues and avoiding booking certain expenses to meet analyst estimates.The SEC alleged that Bankrate’s...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Sept. 8, 2015

FTC Tackles Meaning of ‘Unfair Competition’

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued unprecedented guidance on the section of antitrust law that bans unfair competition, but a dissenting commissioner said the policy statement may only add to “burdens for the business community.”Section 5 of 1914 Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes ...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 14, 2015

Brokerage to Pay Record Fine Over Secret Trading Desk

Brokerage firm Investment Technology Group has agreed to pay an $18 million fine to settle charges it operated a secret trading desk that misused the confidential trading information of clients who subscribed to its “dark pool.”The secret trading operation, known as Project Omega, relied on impro...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 13, 2015

Can Social Media Make Your Company More Ethical?

The Network, a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisory firm, is on a crusade to convince companies that using social media can aid their compliance efforts.Many companies have for years taken advantage of social media for marketing, customer-service, and customer-intelligence purposes. Bu...

By David McCann • Aug. 4, 2015

U.S. Unveils Final Rule on Greenhouse Gases

In what President Barack Obama called “the biggest, most important step we’ve ever taken to combat climate change,” the White House has released its final plan for reducing greenhouse-gas pollution.The retooled version of the administration’s Clean Power Plan, first proposed a year ago, aims to c...

By Matthew Heller • Aug. 4, 2015

SEC Charges 34 Defendants With Microcap Fraud

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged 15 individuals and 19 firms with engaging in “pump-and-dump” schemes to manipulate penny stocks that generated about $6.5 million in illicit proceeds.As part of the schemes, the SEC said Tuesday in a civil complaint, Costa Rica-based Moneyli...

By Matthew Heller • July 15, 2015

Chamber Urges Reform of SEC In-House Trials

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday called for reforms of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigative process that would bolster due-process protections for defendants in enforcement actions.Under the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, the SEC has increased its use of administrative trial...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • July 15, 2015

BP Escapes Larger Damages With $18B Settlement

With its historic $18.7 billion settlement of all federal and state claims arising out of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP avoided what could have been significantly larger penalties.A federal judge’s recent rulings putting a potential $13.7 billion price tag on federal Clean Water Act vi...

By Matthew Heller • July 7, 2015

Improved Analytics Revolutionize Catastrophe Planning

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the costliest hurricane on record in the United States with $41 billion in insured losses and more than $100 billion in economic damage, according to industry and government estimates. For many businesses, Katrina’s destruction exceeded t...

By Claude Yoder • July 2, 2015

High Court Rejects Google’s Appeal in Java Case

Oracle has scored a big win in a high-stakes copyright battle with Google as the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review whether Oracle’s Java application programming interfaces are subject to copyright protection.As Bloomberg reports, APIs allow programmers to take advantage of basic functions alr...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • June 29, 2015

China Uncovers $2.7B in Misused Lottery Funds

Roughly 16.9 billion yuan ($2.72 billion) of China’s lottery funds have been embezzled or misappropriated to buy and build office buildings and hotels, according to China’s National Audit Office.The misused funds accounted for a quarter of all the money raised through the state-run lottery progra...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • June 26, 2015

U.S. Proposes Tougher Standards for Big Trucks

In its latest initiative to combat climate change, the Obama administration on Friday proposed new standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that would improve fuel efficiency and cut carbon pollution.The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration j...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • June 19, 2015

EU Opens Antitrust Probe of Amazon

The European Commission has begun an investigation into whether clauses in Amazon’s contracts with European book publishers are anticompetitive.The clauses require publishers to inform Amazon — the largest distributor of e-books in Europe — when they offer more favorable or alternative terms to i...

By Matthew Heller • June 15, 2015

U.S. Digital Surveillance Hurting Tech Sector

The economic impact of digital surveillance practices on the U.S. technology sector will likely far exceed $35 billion as the government continues to fail to strengthen information security, a coalition of tech companies warn in a new report.The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, f...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • June 10, 2015

What You Must Know to Talk About a Data Breach

As a CFO, you are a top strategic partner to the board and the CEO. You are a de facto risk manager and communications specialist with a focus on the bottom line. Finance executives have an evolving role, and are more than ever concerned with new reputational risks — especially those related to I...

By Kate Fazzini • June 9, 2015

Response to Cyber Threats Found Lacking

Almost 70% of U.S. businesses experienced at least one hacking incident in the last year, but more than half of risk managers believe their company is not doing enough to combat cyber threats, according to a new survey.In a poll conducted at the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) confer...

By Matthew Heller • June 8, 2015

KFC Sues Over Food Safety Rumors in China

Yum Brands’ KFC unit said Monday it had sued three companies in China, alleging they spread false rumors on social media about its products, including that its chickens have eight legs.Yum, which has been fighting to regain customers lost as a result of two recent food safety scares, said the rum...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • June 1, 2015

U.S. Corruption Probe Nets 9 FIFA Officials

Pledging to rid FIFA of “rampant” corruption, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced Wednesday that nine officials of world soccer’s governing body had been indicted on charges of receiving more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks.Jeffrey Webb and Jack Warner – the current and former...

By Matthew Heller • May 27, 2015

Summer Rule-Making to Address Climate Change

Climate change is among the subjects that the Obama administration will address this summer as it tries to finalize as much energy and environmental regulation as possible before President Barack Obama leaves office, The Hill reports.The numerous high-profile rule releases planned for the summer ...

By Matthew Heller • May 26, 2015

Strong Dollar Plays Havoc with Multinationals’ Margins

Analyzing the variance in operating margin (OM) between plan and actual results is an important tool for finance professionals. This article will consider the potential OM variance related to fluctuating foreign exchange (FX) rates.As companies have reported their results for the first quarter of...

By Thomas E. Conine Jr. • May 15, 2015

Social Media Ratchets Up Risks from Angry Customers

For every unresolved negative experience a customer shares in social networks, it takes 12 positive experiences to get a company back to neutral with the public. Customer experiences shared countless times a day across a myriad of networks can reach more people than a Super Bowl ad. With mobile t...

By Donna de Winter • April 15, 2015

AIG Gets OK to Use Drones to Scan Disaster Areas

The Federal Aviation Administration has given AIG the green light by to operate drones, the New York City-based insurance company said Wednesday.AIG plans to use the remote-controlled aerial vehicles to help speed up surveys of disaster areas with high-resolution images for faster claims handling...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • April 8, 2015

Is Mickey-D Marketing Souring McDonald’s Bottom Line?

One time when I was interviewing the CFO of a coal-mining company, I suddenly wondered whether he ever felt any guilt, conflict or even mild unease over his choice of employer. After all, while today we have so-called “clean coal,” a more accurate term would be “cleaner” coal. Coal is still dirty...

By David McCann • Feb. 13, 2015

Anthem Discloses ‘Very Sophisticated’ Cyber Attack

Anthem, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, disclosed late Wednesday that its database of 80 million people was the target of “a very sophisticated external cyber attack.”According to a letter by Anthem’s president and chief executive Joseph R. Swedish
 posted on the Indianapolis company...

By Katie Kuehner-Hebert • Feb. 5, 2015