Tagged: Culture

17 Oct, 2024

TD Bank’s Rotten Corporate Culture — From its Store-Level Operations to its Board’s Audit Committee (Part IV of IV)

TD Banks’ complete compliance disaster was reflected in every aspect of TD Bank’s business and compliance operations. It is not surprising that TD Bank’s deficient BSA and AML compliance program was known by its Board of Directors and senior leadership. TD Bank’s priority on business — even illegal business — outweighed all interest in implementing and maintaining an effective BSA and AML compliance program. ...

General

31 Oct, 2023

Profiles in Effective CEO Leadership

One of the many great experiences I have been fortunate to have in my career is to meet some impressive leaders – at the Department of Justice, on Capitol Hill, and in corporations. To focus on the latter, I have met some amazing CEOs, Chief Compliance Officers, and other senior executives. To be candid, I have also met some not-so-great CEOs and senior executives. To...

General

18 Jan, 2023

Ethics and Compliance Trends and Predictions

I always enjoy pulling out the crystal ball and looking forward with due consideration of last year’s trends. It is a perspective that gives us all the opportunity to identify important trends and to set an agenda for the next year – 2023. The compliance profession continues to grow in overall importance in the corporate governance landscape. Corporate leaders that fail to appreciate this face...

General

13 Sep, 2022

Civility and Corporate Culture

We live in a challenging time — yes, another profound grasp of the obvious. From my narrow perspective, there are two significant trends occurring at the same time — people are angry and more willing to express their anger and frustration in situations, while others appear to be embracing empathy, kindness and increased concern for others. I know this sounds circular but hear me out....

Who is Responsible for a Company’s Mood in the Middle? – the Wells Fargo Fiasco

General

26 Sep, 2016

Who is Responsible for a Company’s Mood in the Middle? – the Wells Fargo Fiasco

Lauren Connell, Managing Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us again for a posting on the Wells Fargo scandal. Lauren can be reached at [email protected]. Wells Fargo’s cultural tone is not easily segregated between “top,” “middle” and “bottom.” Despite the recent cross-selling scandal, in which the CFPB led an enforcement action whose fines total a whopping $185 million, Wells Fargo’s CEO John Stumpf reluctantly...

Fixing a Sour Corporate Culture: Valeant Pharmaceuticals Faces an Uphill Challenge

General

9 May, 2016

Fixing a Sour Corporate Culture: Valeant Pharmaceuticals Faces an Uphill Challenge

Like the Greek mythology character Sisyphus, Valeant Pharmaceutical is attempting to atone for its sins and turn its corporate culture around. I am not usually a cynic but when I see these transparent attempts to reverse a company’s culture, I have a degree of suspicion. In recent weeks, Valeant took the following steps: Hired a new CEO Joseph Papa Removed five directors from its board...

General

21 Apr, 2016

Incident Management – The New Frontier

Compliance programs are required to create and manage case investigation systems to handle potential misconduct, investigate allegations of wrongdoing and then dispense discipline. Lessons learned from these investigations are valuable sources of information to improve compliance programs. Chief compliance officers play a critical role – either supervising the internal investigation system or coordinating with other functions in the organization to monitor internal investigations. Along the...

General

9 Nov, 2015

Does Training + Code of Ethics = Culture of Ethics?

Complacency in compliance is a cancer on a company’s culture. Woody Allen said it best in Annie Hall: A [compliance program] relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark. Here is the video clip of the scene: here When a Chief Compliance...

The 5 Key Ingredients to a Culture of Ethics

General

6 Oct, 2015

The 5 Key Ingredients to a Culture of Ethics

Every company wants to create a culture of ethics. If the senior leadership ignores or downplays a culture of ethics, they have narrowed business opportunities for the company, its shareholders, and other stakeholders. A culture of ethics does not guarantee financial success, but it does add to the bottom line financial performance of a company. There are a number of necessary ingredients that have to...