Source: Folha de S. Paulo | 19/02/2012
In an item on financial market regulation in today’s Folha, the São Paulo daily appears to be mistaken or confused about the Dodd-Frank Act of 2011 when it summarizes legal provisions that actually belong to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Dodd-Frank deals extensively with oversight of trading, banking and lending practices by the SEC and CFTC. The bill establishes an Office of Financial Research and contains provisions for the registration of foreign regulatory bodies — such as Brazil’s CVM.
The terms bribe and suborn appear in the law only once, in a passage governing independence of real estate appraisals.
But this development is news to me, I will have to ponder it. In the meantime, I translate.
A bill passed by the U.S. Congress that punishes bribery of public officials, and pays whistleblowers more than $100,000, has altered the day to day routine of Brazilian companies in the United States. Filipe Coutinho reports ($$$).
Concerned about the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act, passed in 2011, companies such as CPFL and Braskem, with shares listed on the American stock markets, as well as multinationals such as Qualicorp e Kimberly-Clark, have established internal standards as a precaution, including internal whistleblowing channels.
The bill sets aside US$ 450 million in rewards for informants.
Bribery of officials outside the U.S. may also be punished.
One effect of this legislation is the increase of audits in Brazil. Half the work performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers in Brazil is a result of this law.
Ernst & Young Terco has seen a 100% increase in audits requested by foreigners interested in the risks of doing deals in Brazil.
Instant Fame
Here, by the way, is an odd development. In the Google result shown above, my entry on this matter — Todd-Frank +Brasil — jumps immediately to the first page of results as soon as I post it.
I am not sure it is worthy of such a fuss. I mostly just dash this stuff off, you know. What sort of Faustian bargain has WordPress made with the algorithmic engineers, I wonder.
Filed under: Accounting, Banking and Brokerage, Conflicts, Consumer Affairs, Consumer Loans and Credit, Democracy, Derivatives, Disclosure, Factoring, Financial Services, Money Laundering, Regulation
