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The Morning Risk Report: More Boards Receiving Compliance Training |
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Participants march against sexual assault and harassment in Los Angeles on Nov. 12, 2017. PHOTO: Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press
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Good morning. More organizations are requiring their board members to receive compliance training, spurred by having the spotlight shone on workplace harassment through the #MeToo movement, according to a poll of ethics and compliance professionals.
The survey of around 1,200 executives released this week by compliance software and services firm Navex Global found 73% said they now train their boards, up from 44% who said they did so last year and 58% who said they did in 2016. The numbers refer to compliance training in general, not specifically to sexual harassment training.
More needs to be done despite the gains reported in the last year, said Ingrid Freeden, vice president of learning content at Navex Global. "Sexual harassment is not a new issue and it's one that reaches the top echelons of organizations, harming value and reputation when allegations surface," she said.
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The survey found 44% of respondents said their organizations’ directors never received training on workplace harassment, 25% had none on the code of conduct nor on cybersecurity, 23% didn't get trained on conflicts of interest and 20% failed to receive training on bribery or corruption.
"Many boards are not trained on important topics and limited training is far from adequate. Given directors’ oversight responsibility for organizational culture and behavior, critical topics should be addressed more regularly,” said Ms. Freeden.
Creating a culture of ethics and respect ranked first among training objectives of the respondents, overtaking complying with laws and regulations, which topped the 2017 rankings. This may signal a shift by companies toward looking at training in a more holistic way, said Ms. Freeden.
“The most mature program leaders have moved beyond regulatory alignment and on to tackling ethics and compliance objectives through multiple channels with a broader approach,” she said.
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U.S. adds to Shabaab sanctions. The U.S. State Department said it added new aliases to its sanctions designation of al-Shabaab.
The group, a Somali-based al Aeada affiiliate, remains under U.S. sanctions since 2008. The State Department also said it had completed a required five-year review of the sanctions determination, deciding to maintain the measures. -- Samuel Rubenfeld
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The comments made by Russia President Vladimir Putin targeting William Browder are boosting the hedge-fund manager’s efforts to get more countries to impose sanctions on Russia. Starting with the U.S., Mr. Browder has successfully lobbied seven countries that impose sanctions on Russian human-rights abusers. He said in an interview with Risk & Compliance Journal on Thursday that the comments made by Mr. Putin in Helsinki will “increase the probability” that the eight countries he is working with now will impose their own measures.
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President Donald Trump delivered a rare presidential critique of the Federal Reserve, saying he hoped the central bank would stop raising interest rates. “I am not happy about it,” Mr. Trump said about interest-rate increases, in an interview Thursday with CNBC.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said it is “too early” to say whether the Trump administration will move ahead with proposed tariffs of as much as 25% on imported vehicles and auto parts, WSJ reports. Mr. Ross said the government was still analyzing whether it would impose tariffs on national-security grounds, following a similar move on metals imports this year.
The European Union said Thursday it would retaliate if President Donald Trump imposes tariffs on car exports to the U.S., WSJ reports, cautioning Washington against unilateral measures that threaten global free-trade. The threat comes less than a week before a planned White House visit by the EU’s top executive, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Fining Google $5 billion is one thing, making it stick is another, WSJ reports. Google parent Alphabet Inc. said within hours Wednesday of the European Union decision that it would appeal the antitrust fine for abusing the dominance of Google’s Android operating system. Alphabet faces an uphill battle with its appeal—but maybe not an insurmountable one, say lawyers and legal scholars, citing a court ruling involving Intel Corp. last year.
Swiss regulators say Rothschild Bank AG and one of its subsidiaries seriously breached money-laundering rules in the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB Malaysian corruption case, Bloomberg reports. Finma said Friday it will appoint an outside auditor to review controls put in place by the bank and its Rothschild Trust (Schweiz) AG unit.
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The president of Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Television unit was fired Thursday for inappropriate remarks, WSJ reports. Amy Powell, who ran the unit for five years, was let go because of comments “inconsistent with our company’s values,” said Paramount Pictures Chairman and Chief Executive Jim Gianopulos in a memo to the studio.
Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp is rolling out a global test measure to rein in messages forwarded by users, Reuters reports, after the spread of rumors led to several killings in India. False messages about child abductors on WhatsApp have led to mass beatings this year of more than a dozen people in India, some of whom have died. Authorities demanded action by WhatsApp to prevent the circulation of false texts and provocative content.
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This photo taken July 9 shows the father of a lynching victim whose killing was sparked by rumors spread on Facebook and WhatsApp. PHOTO: BIJU BORO/AFP
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Vermonters Paul and Barbi Schulick sold their vitamin business to Procter & Gamble Co. in 2012, hoping P&G ’s deep pockets would fund research needed to nurture the small-but-profitable company. Instead of growing, New Chapter, founded in 1982 by the Schulicks, spiraled downward, WSJ reports.
There’s a hot new business that more and more firms are looking to get into, Bloomberg reports: crypto insurance. As cryptocurrencies, and their underlying blockchain technology, slowly gain broader acceptance, some insurers are betting they can avoid the pitfalls.
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SingHealth, the largest healthcare group in Singapore, was hit by a major cyber attack that targeted the data of prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and resulted in the leakage of 1.5 million patients’ non-medical data, FT reported, citing a government statement released on Friday.
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