GRC Report Staff

FINRA’s 2026 Annual Regulatory Oversight Report offers a window into how risk is showing up across broker-dealers, drawn directly from the regulator’s examination and enforcement experience. While the report does not introduce new rules, it highlights recurring weaknesses and emerging pressure points, from the use of generative AI to cyber-enabled fraud and small-cap market manipulation, that are expected to shape FINRA’s supervisory focus throughout 2026.

What began as a lucrative wound-care operation in Arizona ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own incentives, leaving behind a trail of vulnerable patients, hollowed-out compliance controls, and more than $1.2 billion in fraudulent health care claims.

The UK’s Financial Reporting Council has opened an investigation into Ernst & Young’s statutory audit of Shell’s consolidated financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024, focusing on potential breaches of audit partner rotation rules.

The European Commission has imposed fines totaling roughly €72 million on three automotive starter battery manufacturers and their industry trade association for participating in a long-running cartel that distorted pricing for car and truck batteries across Europe.

Austria’s financial sector is entering 2026 on solid footing, according to the country’s financial watchdog, but the risks facing banks, insurers, and markets are becoming more complex and more global. In presenting its Goals and Priorities for Supervision for 2026, the Austrian Financial Market Authority said it will sharpen its focus on resilience and stability while pushing to streamline supervision and cut unnecessary bureaucracy.

Sustainability is no longer being treated as a reputational add-on or a long-term aspiration. According to HSBC’s Sustainability Pulse Survey 2025, it is increasingly being positioned at the centre of business growth, competitive strategy, and investor decision-making.

Malaysia has made real strides in strengthening its defenses against money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing over the past decade, but enforcement outcomes continue to lag behind the country’s growing investigative capabilities. That is what a new mutual evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) is saying, based on an on-site assessment carried out in February 2025.