GRC Report Staff

Securities America for years failed to properly supervise the sale and switching of Class A mutual funds, leading investors to pay more than $2 million in avoidable costs, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In a settlement finalized through a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent, which the firm neither admitted nor denied, FINRA issued a censure, a $1 million fine, and $2,019,040 in restitution to impacted customers. Interest will also be added to each payment.

The UK’s online safety regulator is making an example of adult content providers who still allow children to stumble onto explicit material with little more than a checkbox standing in their way. On Thursday, Ofcom announced a £1 million fine against AVS Group, the operator of 18 adult websites, after concluding the company had failed to put “highly effective” age assurance in place, a new legal requirement under the landmark Online Safety Act.

The EU’s deforestation law, already the subject of years of political wrangling and industry pushback, is heading for yet another delayed start and a more streamlined design, after Parliament and Council negotiators reached a provisional agreement to postpone and simplify its core requirements.

The European Commission issued its first enforcement actions under the Digital Services Act (DSA) on Wednesday, placing two of the world’s largest platforms on very different tracks toward compliance.

Ransomware has never been more costly. That’s the message from a new Financial Trend Analysis released Wednesday by the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which found that attackers drained more than $2.1 billion from victims between 2022 and 2024. The report examines ransomware activity by the date of each incident, offering the clearest look yet at how aggressively cybercriminals have scaled their extortion campaigns.

Australia’s corporate watchdog is urging companies to do more to protect employees who raise the alarm on misconduct, after uncovering major inconsistencies in the way whistleblower programs are being implemented across the country. A new benchmarking review assessed 134 entities across 18 industries. This review builds on several years of work focused on strengthening Australian whistleblower protections.

Poland’s competition regulator has issued a big enforcement decision against the country’s largest supermarket chain, Biedronka, after finding that the retailer misled customers with its widely advertised “100% moneyback as a voucher” promotions.