due diligence

Mutual fund distributors are set to approach the capital market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), seeking a central bureau of registry for all ‘know your client’ (KYC) documentation. The distributors will also lobby for an electronic or digital KYC till a comprehensive system is put in place. They maintain that this would bring down the volume of paper in the system that would otherwise be generated if the distributors were to send a copy .. Full Article

The US watchdog has charged Ernst & Young and six of its current and former partners for their roles at a fitness business, for failing to know about its fraudulent financial accounting and disclosures. E&Y in the US issued unqualified audit opinions stating that Bally’s 2001 to 2003 financial statements confirmed with GAAP, and its audit conformed with accepted auditing standards. Full Article

WITH the Prevention of Money Laundering (Amendment) Act, 2009 (No 21 of 2009) coming into force from June 1, the RBI has advised all NBFCs to maintain records of clients for a period of 10 years from the date of transaction. The NBFCs will have keep records of the Identity of the Clients, both domestic or international, which will permit reconstruction of individual transactions so as to provide, if necessary, evidence for prosecution of persons involved in criminal acti.. Full Article

The credit crisis has exposed weaknesses in many financial intermediaries. How can rating agencies ensure their views are more accurate and unbiased?  Despite due diligence, there is always scope for improvement. Credit rating agencies (CRA) do not carry out a separate audit but takes cognisance of the information available from annual reports, submissions from management, [...] Full Article

Sub-brokers in the stock market are likely to be exempted from the requirement of registering with the capital market regulator before starting their operations as per a proposal under consideration of the finance ministry and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).  The move is to promote self-regulation through an industry body under the [...] Full Article

While the Manmohan Singh government’s Left-free second innings is expected to usher in changes to India’s archaic labour laws, the labour ministry is working on a quick-fix solution to help drop the country’s notorious ‘inspector raj’ tag. If all goes to plan, India Inc would no longer have to deal with labour inspectors turning up at [...] Full Article

The Reserve bank of India (RBI) has penalised a number of banks—both government-run and private—in the last three years for violating its guidelines. The alleged violations include “non-adherence of know-your-customer (KYC) norms, failure of internal controls in initial public offerings, violation of foreign exchange management guidelines and non-maintenance of prescribed cash reserve ratio (CRR) and [...] Full Article

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India could likely consider recommending blacklisting of Price Waterhouse, which would bar the global audit firm from carrying out auditing in India. As the institute can only recommend, its decision can be challenged in court. The institute may state its decision by the month end, say people familiar with the development. [...] Full Article