The Most Important Compliance Best Practices You Need to Know

The whole point of IFRS is to produce clear, reliable, relevant, and comparable financial statements that lenders and investors can depend on to make informed decisions. IFRS measures fixed assets in terms of their present and future contributions to the company.

Mike Morley, a Certified Public Accountant, explains the IFRS criteria for valuing fixed assets.

The FCPA requires companies whose securities are listed in the United States to meet certain accounting provisions. Global multinationals and financial institutions are at the greatest risk of violating FCPA provisions. The US administration maintains that strict FCPA enforcement is consistent with the goals of promoting transparency, democracy, sustainable development, and good governance.

This article details the best practices that financial institutions can follow in order to achieve FCPA compliance.

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act or HMDA applies to financial institutions, like banks, savings associations, credit unions, and other mortgage-lending institutions. In 2011, over 16.3 million loan records for the calendar year 2010 were reported by 7,923 institutions.

What are the best practices to be followed in order to comply with the HMDA? Read this article to find out.

Under US federal regulations, financial privacy is guaranteed to customers of financial institutions. But what are the best practices that banks can follow in order to protect the sensitive customer data and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements?

Read this article to find out.

Business continuity is a key operational and risk management consideration for financial institutions such as banks. But what are the strategies that banks should follow in order to ensure that there is no unnecessary disruption to their daily operations?

Read this article to find out how banks can implement business continuity strategies and the best practices they can follow.

In this extract from his book, IFRS Simplified, Mike Morley, a Certified Public Accountant, gives a brief overview of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) requirements for financial instruments.

The largest corporate bankruptcy in US history (Enron) shook the very foundation upon which the securities exchange system was founded. The report card that investors and lenders used to make their decisions, the audited financial statement, could no longer be trusted. Investors and lenders lost confidence in public company senior management to tell them the truth.

In this article, Mike Morley, a Certified Public Accountant and author of several books including “IFRS Simplified" and "Sarbanes-Oxley Simplified", discusses what led to the collapse of investor confidence in Enron.

Prevention is better than the cure when it comes to fraud as organizations around the world lose around 5% of their annual revenues to corporate malpractices. So how can a financial services organization create an effective anti-fraud policy to prevent such losses? What are the factors to be taken into consideration when drafting such a policy?

This article gives the best practices to follow when drafting an anti-fraud policy for financial institutions.

According to an estimate, the amount of money laundered annually ranges from USD 500 billion to about USD 3 trillion. How can organizations estimate the risk that money laundering poses to their operations and comply with anti-money laundering regulations?

This article discusses the best practices to follow in preventing money laundering.

According to a Certified Fraud Examiners Survey, organizations lose an estimated 5% of their annual revenue or about USD 2.9 trillion of the gross world product, because of fraud. The average time taken to detect a fraud is about 18 months.

This article discusses the best practices to be followed by financial institutions when creating a fraud response plan.

PCAOB Audit Standard No. 5 contains new standards and guidelines for independent auditors to affirm and report on the effectiveness of an organization’s internal control over financial reporting, in terms of Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It effectively replaces PCAOB Standard No.2. The new standard makes Section 404(b) more effective by promoting risk-based audits depending on the size and complexity of the organization.

This article discusses how to comply with this standard and the best practices to be followed.

The Compensation Committee Revised Rules of 2006 require that all compensation earned by a company’s senior executives (chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and three most-highly-compensated officers, earning above USD 100,000) in the last fiscal year be disclosed.

This articles discusses the best practices to be followed in order to comply with these regulations.

Unemployment insurance tax liabilities have skyrocketed. As a result of the recession, employer-paid UI taxes in 2010 and for the next few years will be significantly higher than in previous years – for some employers tax liabilities have increased by more than 300%. No longer a “nuisance tax,” higher UI taxes are having a negative effect on labor costs, cash flow, and profitability. Higher UI taxes are altering hiring and retention decisions and affecting other talent management decisions. Higher UI taxes are increasing employers’ interest in effective UI cost control techniques. One technique to measure and allocate an organization’s UI taxes liabilities more effectively is internalized experience rating (IER).

Wall Street off late has been using ending cash balance as a measure of management effectiveness. This can be achieved by efficient and accurate cash flow forecasting. Managing debt and investment in a balanced manner shall reflect on the efficiency of the treasry department. The global economic dowturn has left complanies cash strapped and this might be the right time for them to review their current approach to forecasting. Insight into the best practices for forecasting, will help gear companies to overcome this challenge.

Background checks for new recruits into financial institutions is becoming a regular practice. This is being conducted for all levels of employees. It is essential to put in a robust process in order to reap the benefits. Understand - the key trends in background screenings, common pitfalls, decide on outsourcing or not - become important key areas before setting a process.