Insights

In a modern era marked by rapid technological advancement and global uncertainty, organizations worldwide are grappling with an increasingly complex risk landscape. The Risk in Focus 2025 report, a comprehensive study based on surveys conducted by the Internal Audit Foundation and the European Confederation of Institutes of Internal Auditing (ECIIA), sheds light on the current and future risk priorities of businesses across the globe.

In recent years, the landscape of regulatory compliance in UK financial services has undergone a significant transformation. As a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) analyst, I've observed a marked shift in regulatory focus towards non-financial misconduct. This evolving trend presents both challenges and opportunities for firms striving to maintain compliance and uphold their reputations in an increasingly scrutinized environment.

In an unprecedented enforcement action that marks a watershed moment in compliance and regulatory enforcement, TD Bank has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies and agreed to pay $1.8 billion in criminal penalties, with total penalties reaching approximately $3 billion when combined with civil enforcement actions. The resolution represents not only the largest penalty ever imposed under the Bank Secrecy Act but also introduces a novel enforcement approach: the first-ever daily fine against a bank for persistent compliance failures.

The world of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks has long been under scrutiny, and one of the key issues that continues to generate concern is greenwashing – the practice of making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a company’s products or initiatives. RepRisk’s 2024 report on greenwashing has drawn attention to a significant, yet nuanced, shift in the greenwashing landscape. For the first time in six years, there has been an overall decline in the number of greenwashing incidents, though high-risk cases have surged, underlining an evolving and more complex regulatory landscape.

The Department of Justice's Criminal Division unveiled today a sweeping new framework for addressing cybercrime and artificial intelligence-enabled criminal activities, signaling a major evolution in the federal government's approach to technology-enabled threats. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, speaking at the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section's Symposium hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, detailed the division's ambitious strategy to combat increasingly sophisticated digital threats while safeguarding civil liberties and promoting responsible innovation.

In the latest move by regulators to clamp down on record-keeping violations, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has fined CHS Hedging, LLC $650,000 for failing to properly maintain required records and executing unauthorized trades. This penalty follows a growing trend of financial regulators taking swift and severe action against firms for failing to meet compliance obligations in the digital age.

AI technology and models are used across industries to analyze, predict, generate, and represent information, decisions, and outcomes that impact operations and business strategy. A range of departments, functions, and roles are beginning to rely on AI as a critical foundation for business processes that support operations, long-term strategic planning, and day-to-day tactical decisions.