The regulator found PwC had engaged in ‘improper professional conduct’ by performing prohibited non-audit services and breaching the independence rules in connection with 15 SEC-registered audit clients.
PwC partner Brandon Sprankle, who has been with the firm for over 20 years, has also been charged for causing the firm’s independence violations.
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SEC’s Clayton attacks lack of global commitment to combatting corruption The chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a blistering attack on his foreign counterparts for failing to tackle offshore corruption. During his speech at the Economic Club of New York on Monday (9 September), Jay Clayton warned there was a […]
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SEC urged to unleash sweeping changes to proxy system As the SEC’s Proxy Plumbing saga rumbles on, the Commission has signalled that public companies, shareholders and other stakeholders in the US may soon get the transparency in the proxy system that many have been demanding. The investor advisory committee to the US Securities and Exchange […]
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Proxy Plumbing: SEC Re-opens Investigations Plans to review US proxy plumbing infrastructure “long overdue, but very welcome”. The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced it will re-examine the US proxy voting system. The US securities regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, is inviting comments on its proposal and will host a round-table this autumn to […]
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Corporate governance researcher Equilar has found a median chief executive officer (CEO) pay ratio of 140:1 following an anonymous survey of 356 US public companies. Equilar asked the companies how they plan to report on this in their 2018 proxy statements. In 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) passed a ruling that required public companies to report the ratio […]
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Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has been fined £27m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for breaching UK disclosure rules while the US Securities & Exchange Commission has charged the company and former executives with fraud in relation to the acquisition of a coal mine in Mozambique in 2011. Rio Tinto is also being investigated […]
Read MoreIn a sign of disquiet about the acting chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Michael Piwowar, Democratic Senators have suggested that he has overreached his authority in a letter to the regulator’s inspector general, Carl Hoecker. The Senators point out that Piwowar’s position is temporary until President Trump’s nominee for the position, Jay Clayton, […]
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Demand for CEO pay ratios has increased with initiatives in the US and UK focusing on the discrepancies between director and employee pay and the need for more regulation. US Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and eight other senators have written to Michael Piwowar, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to urge him to implement […]
Read MoreAs the US Presidential battle careers towards its conclusion, the day to day business of law creation proceeds in Washington DC. Of particular interest to investors, indeed anyone with an interest in good governance, is HR5311 the ‘‘Corporate Governance Reform and Transparency Act of 2016.’’ The brainchild of the US Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital […]
Read MoreSustainability reporting in the US needs improvement according to the chair of its Security and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, in her key note address at the International Corporate Governance Network conference that took place in San Francisco this week. She said the regulator, along with companies and investors, needed to do more work on sustainability reporting including on whether, […]
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