Financial Leadeship Corporation

We uniquely integrate financial expertise and communication skills
to help companies build sustainable success.

Greg Zegarowski assisted the bank in our year-end SOX audit procedures working with management in documenting the bank’s annual report footnote disclosure controls and procedures. Greg is knowledgeable in his subject matter and a pleasure to work with on any project!"

Charlene T. Migrditchian
First Republic Bank
Audit Services & Enterprise Risk Management

Compliance Effectiveness

Compliance is a critical though sometimes troublesome component of business operations. We need to follow local, state, federal, and international requirements for delivering goods and services, transacting payments, and reporting. Some observers date the rise of the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) position to 2002 when SEC Commissioner Cynthia Glassman called on companies to designate a ‘corporate responsibility officer’.

FINANCIAL LEADERSHIP CORPORATION
assists companies and organizations set up processes and training to meet compliance requirements and beyond. We help you build efficiency into your compliance programs and leverage that effort to achieve enhanced corporate reputations and bottom line improvements. In other words, compliance effectiveness.

» Pre-IPO Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Preparation
» Risk-Based Efficiencies for Existing SOX Programs
» International Operations and Bribery Challenges
» USA Patriot Act, Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering

Pre-IPO Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Preparation
If your company is considering going public, then you need to become SOX compliant. Managers need to understand their responsibilities under SOX and be able to effectively participate in implementing a robust and efficient SOX compliance program. We can help your company plan, educate, and implement risk-based SOX controls and the necessary tests to confirm that the controls are operating. Financial Leadership leaves your company with a sustainable SOX program that can be maintained by your staff and will pass external audit muster.

Risk-Based Efficiencies for Existing SOX Programs
Mature companies have had to deal with SOX since 2002. Controls and tests have been put in place and the costs of maintenance are, hopefully, coming down. It’s now time to evaluate your SOX efforts. Are your controls risk-based? Does your staff truly understand what SOX is all about? Have you been able to leverage your SOX efforts to accomplish greater operational efficiencies? Financial Leadership can conduct a SOX-health check-up and recommend possible improvements to your program. Invest in your internal control health! Financial Leadership’s highly qualified consultants can provide that extra boost to your efforts.

International Operations and Bribery Challenges
If you are a company operating overseas or purchasing parts or services from abroad, there are special compliance challenges that you face. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is best known for its anti-bribery provisions. How do you conduct business in a country where getting a contract or conducting operations seems to be tied to paying bribes or “facilitation fees”? What are the legal rules and how do you establish sound company policies and compliance programs? Learn from Financial Leadership people who have been on the ground doing business in foreign countries. Integrate FCPA compliance with your overall ethics program and leverage that effort to gain competitive advantage abroad.

USA Patriot Act, Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering
Since the tragedy of 9/11, the responsibility of financial institutions to understand their customer relationships and the flow of cash transactions has escalated. Financial Leadership has worked with major US banks to strengthen their compliance with the USA Patriot Act, Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), Know Your Customer (KYC), and anti-money laundering (AML) provisions. Financial Leadership can support your compliance efforts through tailored training programs that can lead to strategic market advantage. See sidebar from our SOX training module.

Contact Financial Leadership: gregz@financialleadership.com

ARTICLES/
WHITE PAPERS:

Corporate sustainability after Sarbanes – Oxley (International Journal of Disclosure and Governance Vol. 4, 1, 52–58)

Sarbanes-Oxley—
What You Need to Know
(On-site training: 4 or 8 hours)

Corporate scandals have led to a new focus on corporate governance and transparency. Long-term corporate sustainability can be directly linked to sound governance practices, balanced internal controls, and effective communication of business information. Customer loyalty and employee retention can be positively correlated to strong governance practices and socially responsible corporate behavior.

This course will enable you to better understand Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and its impact on boards of directors, management, line supervisors, and all corporate stakeholders. As an employee you want to know that the stocks in your retirement fund are properly accounted for. As an employer, you want to manage compliance costs while leveraging that effort towards building greater shareholder value.

Topics include:

Overview of Sarbanes-Oxley
Section 404 – the evaluation of internal controls
The impact of SOX on Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)
Business ethics and SOX compliance
Assessing Risks and Managing the Costs
Preventing fraud
Building and measuring Tone at the Top
The expanded role of Internal Audit
eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)