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Governance

Increase in health and safety fines welcomed

A new bill which aims to raise the penalties for health and safety offences will keep costs down for defendants and lead to a swifter resolution.

Swiss bank obtains injunction against whistleblower site

Swiss bank Julius Baer has obtained an injunction in a Californian court against a whistleblowers website that published details of its financial activities in the Cayman Islands.

Compliance role affected by image

Despite a bumper year of compliance recruitment, professionals remain concerned that a lack of staff is affecting their ability to meet regulatory requirements.

Review of CC merger guidelines

The Competition Commission (CC) has launched a review of its guidelines for merger references.

Boards careless about IT governance

Only 12 per cent of businesses take technology seriously enough to operate full board-level oversight of their IT resources, according to research from IT Governance Limited.

How can we prevent the next SocGen scandal?

Control management in banks needs a change in approach and culture rather than more plasters and bandages in the wake of the losses at Société Générale.

US firms reluctant to disclose performance pay goals

A significant number of large US companies do not plan to disclose performance goals for their executive pay programmes in their 2008 proxy statement.

Société Générale claims €4.9bn trader fraud

The French bank Société Générale claims to have uncovered an exceptional fraud in a sub-section of its market activities.

Only four in ten firms fully compliant

The number of FTSE 350 companies aspiring to full compliance with the provisions of the Combined Code has reached 41 per cent, up from 34 per cent in 2006.

OFT clears Nike's acquisition of Umbro

The Office of Fair Trading has cleared the anticipated acquisition by Nike, Inc of Umbro plc. The OFT decided that the merger raises no competition concerns in any market.

Criminal gangs target Government institutions

An economic slowdown in 2008 as the result of the credit crunch could result in a rise in the emergence of high value corporate frauds.

EC in new antitrust actions against Microsoft

The European Commission has decided to initiate two formal antitrust investigations against Microsoft Corp concerning alleged abuse of market dominance.

White collar crime is spreading like the flu

New research from accountants BDO Stoy Hayward shows that the number and value of business fraud cases going through the criminal courts is falling dramatically.