Compliance & Ethics

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed a substantial £15 million fine on PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) for failing to report suspicions of fraud during its 2016 audit of London Capital & Finance plc (LCF). This landmark case serves as a stark reminder of the critical role auditors play in the financial regulatory framework and offers crucial insights for compliance and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) professionals across the financial services sector.

Asphalt Specialists LLC has been slapped with a $6.5 million criminal fine for its role in orchestrating bid rigging schemes across Michigan’s asphalt industry. The hefty fine follows the company’s guilty plea earlier this year, marking a significant enforcement action in a broader crackdown on anticompetitive practices within the sector.

The Federal Reserve has launched targeted enforcement actions against financial institutions in Oklahoma and Minnesota. These interventions, far from routine regulatory measures, represent a calculated response to deeply rooted operational deficiencies that threaten the stability of regional banking ecosystems.

In a sweeping regulatory action, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have imposed hefty fines totaling hundreds of millions of dollars on dozens of financial institutions for widespread record-keeping and supervision failures related to the use of unapproved communication methods.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has unveiled a new website dedicated to the enforcement activities of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). This initiative marks a pivotal step in CFIUS’s ongoing efforts to enhance its role as a guardian of national security by providing the public and investors with unprecedented access to information on the committee’s enforcement actions and penalties.

The latest survey conducted by BarkerGilmore provides a revealing look into the compensation trends for Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) across public companies, private companies, and non-profit organizations. As compliance professionals navigate an increasingly complex regulatory environment, understanding these compensation patterns offers valuable insight into the evolving priorities of organizations across various sectors.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has levied a fine of £276,100 against Forex TB Limited (FXTB), a Cypriot contract for differences (CFD) firm, for failing to treat customers fairly and providing unauthorized investment advice.