On 7 March 2024 at the American Bar Association’s 39th National Institute on White Collar Crime, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced several new initiatives the Department of Justice is implementing to address concerns around the use of AI in federal criminal activity along with potential corporate compliance failures that might facilitate the misuse of AI.
The annual updates on enforcement trends and priorities this year build upon last year’s guidance by substantially sweetening the calculus for whistleblowers and voluntary self- disclosures, and reflecting the nation’s rapid adoption of disruptive technology tools especially including AI. Previous trends, such as the government’s ongoing enforcement effort aimed at protecting U.S. intellectual property from perceived threats by foreign adversaries, are not letting up, but instead are increasing in specificity as to related corporate compliance expectations. As companies increasingly engage in the race to use and sell AI tools and the datasets that fuel them, now is a great time to also put in place corporate compliance strategies to avoid becoming the next poster child for the government’s deterrence efforts.
On 13 February 2024, the FCA issued a Final Notice to Floris Jakobus Huisamen, the former director and compliance officer of London Capital & Finance plc (LCF), fining him GBP 31,800 and banning him from working in financial services in relation to misconduct connected to financial promotions issued by LCF. This Final Notice follows the FCA’s previous censure of LCF in October 2023 for connected behaviour. In this alert we draw out the key takeaways that compliance officers should bear in mind from the FCA’s enforcement action.
We are pleased to share with you our annual briefing looking at financial services regulation and enforcement in 2024, “What does 2024 hold? Key upcoming developments and enforcement trends”.
With Brexit and the pandemic firmly in the rear-view mirror, and the geopolitical ebb-and-flow settling into a somewhat more stable – if preciously perched – pattern, regulators around the world have turned their attention to less reactive, more forward-looking actions. Our London Financial Institutions Regulatory and Enforcement experts explore the key developments and trends expected to dominate the regulatory landscape this year.
Investigations are an essential tool for ensuring a company’s ethical standards are being followed by employees, business partners, and any others with whom the company interacts. However, investigations are also an essential tool for demonstrating and maintaining strong corporate governance – an integral part of a company’s ESG commitments and strategy. It is also a good time to set yourself some goals and resolutions. To help you on your way, we are pleased to share our top 5 Lunar New Year Resolutions for handling Internal or Government Investigations
The Doing Business in the Philippines handbook aims to equip both local and foreign entrepreneurs with a practical guide to navigating the ever-evolving business landscape in the Philippines. It provides information on the requirements needed when setting up and operating a business in the Philippines, including incentives under special registrations, taxation, employment, IP, dispute resolution, and industry-specific regulations.
On 12 December 2023, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that it will proceed with the proposal to require financial institutions to conduct and respond to reference checks. The reference check requirements have been introduced following the MAS’ June 2021 public consultation on proposals to mandate reference checks.
On 28 December 2023, the Treasury and the IRS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding whether a debt instrument is worthless for US federal income tax purposes under Code section 166 (the “Proposed Regulations”). The Proposed Regulations would update the standards under Treas. Reg. § 1.166-2 used to determine when debt instruments held by regulated financial companies or members of a regulated financial group are conclusively presumed worthless.
The last thirty days in September, the end of the US federal government’s fiscal year, is generally an important time to analyze enforcement activity by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In this short video, Baker McKenzie Partner Peter Chan, a former SEC Assistant Director of Enforcement, provides his insights regarding the importance of the timing of some of these enforcement actions.
The Monetary Singapore Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Infocomm Media Authority (IMDA) published a joint consultation paper, which sets out a Shared Responsibility Framework (SRF) allocating losses arising from scams among financial institutions (FIs), telecommunication operators (telcos) and consumers.
Under the proposed SRF, FIs and telcos will have to fulfill their respective anti-scam duties. Failure to do so may result in the FIs and telcos making payouts to scam victims for certain types of phishing scams.