Though the Department of the Treasury’s actions do not prohibit victim companies from paying ransoms, they add another layer of complexity for victim companies deciding whether to pay. Paying a ransom carries short-term and long-term consequences, carries legal and regulatory risk, as highlighted by the Department of the Treasury’s recent actions, and could shape the outlook and reputation of a company for years to come.

Review the guide on Milbank General Counsel's website.

The paper is a follow-up to the perspectives papers A Framework to Assess ESG Value Creation released in May 2021 and ESG and Business Valuation released in March 2021, which explore how ESG characteristics are, or can be, incorporated into the value measurement process.

Review ESG and Real Estate Valuation on the IVSC's website.

Spanning 168 leading global companies, this year’s research shows continued progress in corporate sustainability reporting. This year, Reporting Matters presents a focus on the role that corporate reporting plays in shaping and communicating the contribution of businesses in addressing unprecedented challenges in climate change, nature loss, and inequality.

Review the report on the WBCSD's website.

The Agenda items in­cluded:

• Definitions of Listed Entity and PIE
• Non-As­sur­ance Ser­vices & Fees Roll­out
• Bench­mark­ing
• Emerging Issues and Outreach Committee (EIOC)
• Technology Fact Finding and Thought Leadership
• Technology Project
• eIS / eCode 2.0
• Tax Planning & Related Services
• Long Association Post-Implementation Review (Phase 1)
• Engagement Team–Group Audits Independence
• Next Meeting

Re­view the high­lights sum­mary and pod­cast on the IESBA's web­site.

The SASB Standards Board is an independent standards board that is accountable for the due process, outcomes, and ratification of SASB Standards, including any changes to the Standards. It is part of the Value Reporting Foundation.

The Agenda items in­cluded:

• Standard-setting Agenda Overview
• Standard-Setting Projects
  • Tailings Management in Extractives
  • Systemic Risk in Asset Management
• Other Projects
  • Conceptual Framework
• Additional Research
  • Alternative Meat & Dairy Research Project
  • Marine Transportation Working Group

Re­view the Summary of Meeting Outcomes on the SASB’s web­site.

Québec’s Bill 64, An Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information, was adopted unanimously, on September 21, 2021, receiving assent on September 22, 2021. The clock has started running to prepare for its implementation in covered organizations. While most new provisions will come into effect only two years after assent, the organizational transformation they entail is significant and will require time and resources. To comply with Bill 64, organizations must:

1. establish data governance processes, including ones to assist individuals in exercising new privacy rights
2. develop corporate data management policies
3. adopt technological solutions to de-index or transfer personal information upon request; and
4. issue internal guidelines to support staff and service providers in the implementation of the new privacy regime.

Review a summary on Dentons' website.

Ms. Figueiredo Dias has extensive experience in international standard setting, legal and regulatory structure and governance, and academia. She currently serves as the President of the CMVM (Portuguese Securities Market Commission), the authority responsible for regulating and supervising the markets of financial instruments, covering listed companies, asset managers, auditors and investment firms. There, she provides strategic direction to the Board, manages the organization and represents it before International Organizations such as IOSCO and OECD, the European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), as well as the Portuguese Government, the National Council of Financial Supervisors and market stakeholders. She has also served as head of the international and regulatory policy department and of the issuers and financial information department at CMVM and has extensive experience in and understanding of financial regulatory frameworks. In addition, she has served as a member of the ESMA Board and Management Board, member of the IOSCO Board, Vice-Chair of the OECD Corporate Governance Committee, Chair of the ESMA Investment Management Standing Committee, and she will remain in office as non-executive President of the General Board of the University of Coimbra in Portugal. She holds a master’s degree in law from the Coimbra University Law School.

Review the press release on the IESBA’s website.

According to the group, the SEC should refrain from measuring the broader societal impacts of ESG compliance by listed firms because those matters are outside the regulator’s areas of expertise. “While several members of FER expressed concerns over lack of progress on environmental and social issues, the group agreed the costs of the SEC mandating these kinds of disclosures could be substantial and the potential gains would likely be slight,” said Richard Herring, Wharton professor of international banking and professor of finance, who is one of the 30 signatories to the FER statement.

Review the article on Wharton's website.

This new guidance leverages the principles from COSO’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) – Integrating with Strategy and Performance Framework (2017), and serves as a guide to help organizations align risk management with strategy and execution of their AI initiatives.

The project, commissioned by COSO and co-authored by Deloitte, focuses on the need for organizations to design and implement governance, risk management, and oversight strategies and structures to realize the potential of humans collaborating with AI.

Review the press release and publication on COSO's website.

Executives across these companies are paid through multifaceted compensation programs where “salary” is typically the smallest component of overall pay. Beyond salaries and pensions, the rest of their pay is generally made up of “pay for performance” bonuses, which is hypothetically based on how the company is doing. The performance measures differ by company but can include revenue, profit or stock price goals and they can also include things like low workplace deaths and how much employees like working for a company.

They found many executive officers in Canada actively benefited from the pandemic—either because their companies were on the right side of COVID-19 and made a profit from it or because their bonus formulas were changed.

For the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance's (CCGG) ongoing engagement and policy priority with respect to the use of non-GAAP measures in executive compensation was the observed practice of excluding poor financial results from determinations of executive compensation or “adjusting away the impacts of the pandemic”.  While expressly not impugning the practice of the use of non-GAAP measures in executive compensation, since releasing its position paper in late 2019, CCGG has been incorporating discussions of their use by boards during engagements, advocating for greater oversight and transparency as to how boards consider and implement adjustments for the purposes of compensation, paying particular attention to patterns of only “adjusting away” financial measures with negative performance implications.

Review the press release and report on the CCPA's website.