Deferred and Non-Prosecution Agreements (DPA / NPA)

I have written a bit on pre-trial agreements including deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements. Recent research from the Open Compliance & Ethics Group (OCEG) indicates that while risk and compliance professionals see the value in reviewing the information contained in pre-trial agreements, that few have actually read these documents.

Preliminary results from the research indicate (n = 362):

• 61% of professions believe that the contents of pre-trial agreements are important or critical to their program design
  
  YET
  
  
• 20% have actually read and applied this information

We found no significant difference in opinion between public vs. private vs. nonprofit vs. governmental organizations. We found no significant difference in opinion between large vs. small firms.

The Regulation Train Keeps Moving...

Recent announcements from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner indicate that financial institutions will face far-reaching and economically significant regulation.

The New York Times reported that Geithner said, "Our system failed in fundamental ways. To address this will require comprehensive reform. Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game."

The Financial Times reported that "the heaviest demands would be placed on institutions deemed to be systemically important" to the financial system. What this includes is not only banks, but also insurance companies, significant financing organizations such as GE Capital, and maybe even significant private equity and hedge funds.