GRC Report Staff

Australia's House of Representatives has recently passed the Treasury Laws Amendment (Financial Market Infrastructure and Other Measures) Bill 2024, marking a pivotal step in both climate and financial market reforms. This significant piece of legislation introduces mandatory climate-related financial reporting for large and medium-sized companies and establishes the Net Zero Economy Authority to steer Australia towards its climate goals.

Odeon Capital Group has agreed to a $250,000 fine and censure as part of a settlement with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), addressing violations of supervisory and compliance rules. This resolution comes under FINRA Rule 9216 and is intended to address specific rule violations described in the settlement.

Swedish regulators have levied a fine against a major domestic bank for unlawfully transferring customer data to Meta's advertising platforms. The Swedish Supervisory Authority (SA) announced a €1.3 million administrative penalty against Avanza Bank AB after an investigation found the bank had been funneling personal information about up to 1 million customers to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, over an 18-month period.

In a sweeping enforcement action, the Securities and Exchange Commission has cracked down on several major public companies for impeding whistleblowers from reporting potential misconduct to regulators.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has settled charges against Esmark Inc. and its founder, James P. Bouchard, for announcing a fraudulent tender offer to purchase U.S. Steel Corporation. The announcement came on September 6, 2024, following an investigation into the company's 2023 acquisition attempt.

Massachusetts securities regulators have fined Morgan Stanley $2 million for failing to properly monitor stock sales by a former First Republic Bank (FRB) executive in the lead-up to the bank's collapse in 2023. The announcement came from Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin on September 6, 2024.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Nicholas Bowerman, a former finance director at CIRCOR International Inc., with accounting fraud. The charges, announced on September 5, 2024, allege that Bowerman's actions led to misleading public statements about CIRCOR's financial performance from 2019 through 2021.