Tag Archives: Regulation

Uncle Sam’s Stimulus and Crypto Boom 

By | October 26, 2023

On July 9, 2020, a criminal complaint was filed against Joshua Thomas Argires, a Houston business owner, for submitting materially false loan applications to obtain and misuse funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).  Around May 2020, Mr. Argires opened an account in the name of Texas Barbecue at Coinbase and began trading crypto, ultimately… Read More »

Penalty Zones and International Sustainability Standards 

By | October 25, 2023

Increasingly, sustainability standards are recognized as important tools for helping companies navigate the complex sustainability landscape. These standards help companies tackle their social and environmental challenges and serve as credible signals to stakeholders that they are doing the right thing, thus creating potential opportunities for the market to reward these companies.   But what really… Read More »

Green Risk in Europe 

By | October 19, 2023

Aligning financial market activity with policy and regulation interventions is necessary to foster an orderly transition to a carbon-free economy. For instance, within the European Green Deal strategy, the European Union Taxonomy provides firms, investors, and policymakers with detailed criteria to assess the environmental sustainability of economic activities concerning climate change mitigation and adaptation, among… Read More »

Legal Hurdles for Holding Compliance Gatekeepers Accountable  

By | September 7, 2023

There is a consensus that compliance is a critical issue in corporate governance. Yet there remains a gaping hole in our understanding of what determines the effectiveness of compliance programs. Specifically, we know relatively little about the role of third-party compliance advisors.   Nowadays, virtually every large law firm or accounting firm sells various “compliance… Read More »

Cybercrime on the Ethereum Blockchain 

By | September 6, 2023

While Bitcoin is still the largest cryptocurrency in the world by market capitalization, the Ethereum blockchain maintains the unique ability to tokenize assets and execute smart contracts. These benefits for businesses and investors also come with additional opportunities for cybercriminals, such as when a company simply runs away with the money after tokenizing its assets. … Read More »

The Rise and Fall, and Possible Rise Again, of the Use of Infringement Notices by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission 

By | September 5, 2023

Australia’s corporate and securities regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has extensive enforcement powers that it can use to ensure compliance with the law. One of these is the power to issue infringement notices. An infringement notice is an administrative mechanism that ASIC can use as a response to misconduct. It is issued… Read More »

The UBS-Credit Suisse Merger: Helvetia’s Gift

By | August 14, 2023

The March 2023 bank run on Credit Suisse (CS) has received much attention. As a result of this bank run, the Swiss banking regulator (FINMA) pushed for the merger of CS with UBS, another large Swiss bank, thus creating one of the biggest banking unions in history. The demise of CS shook faith in a… Read More »

A Recurrence of Financial Distress for Borrowers with Student Loans 

By | August 11, 2023

In the world of student loans, things look grim. Borrowers owe an estimated $1.6 trillion in student loans—a figure which is second only to mortgage debt in the total amount of consumer debt attributed to Americans. Student loan borrower were hopeful that the Biden administration—which promised to provide up to $20,000 in relief for student… Read More »

In the Battle for Financial Privacy, Whose Voice will Count? 

By | August 9, 2023

In the lead-up to the debate about the Data Privacy Act of 2023, Financial Services Committee members received letters from consumer groups and finance trade associations, urging them to vote for or against the contentious legislation.  The Data Privacy Act of 2023 garnered opposition from consumer advocacy groups and support from finance trade associations. The… Read More »

Patience is Key: The Time it Takes to See Benefits from Continuous Auditing 

By | August 6, 2023

Continuous auditing (CA) was introduced decades ago to enhance the quality of assurance by continuously and automatically analyzing data running through a corporate system based on rules defined by internal auditors. As CA is designed to provide more feedback on deviations and more timely feedback compared to traditional auditing, it is expected to enhance monitoring.… Read More »