SAP is using its globally centralized governance, risk, and compliance program to bring greater effectiveness and efficiency to its GRC processes.

What happened to all of the regulatory reform activity that was streaming down the pike late last year? It is "losing steam," notes Princeton economics professor Alan Binder. He identified five reasons why the "pulse of reform is so faint."

Companies want their GRC staffers to be able to effectively communicate with executives who sit on internal risk committees and to possess deep knowledge of at least one business area of the organization, which typically requires years of experience. Where does that leave greener employees looking to get in on GRC?

Only a small portion of Fortune 1000 company boards operate separate risk committees, but all could benefit from this extra oversight. Companies interested in starting a board-level risk committee should take a look at the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation's charter, which provides a clear outline of the group's purpose.

Deloitte Chairman of the Board Sharon Allen discusses the results of the third annual Ethics & Workplace survey that she commissioned to examine the reputational risk associated with employees' use of social networks.

Not so long ago, the term "regulatory reform" was a broad one -- it referred to rules and principles that applied to all industries. Today, in the still-simmering wake of the financial crisis, the definition of "regulatory reform" in the United States has narrowed.

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement efforts have quietly grown more aggressive. The latest sign that FCPA compliance should be a top governance, risk, and compliance priority for many companies came this summer when the SEC showed its willingness to dig into Brazilian regulatory matters while investigating Utah-based Nature's Sunshine Products.

Risk committees -- cross-functional groups of operational and functional managers -- are a key component of governance, risk, and compliance success, according to GRC practitioners.

Online social networks, which provide a new way for people to connect and communicate, can put a company's reputation at risk. This year Deloitte's annual Ethics & Workplace Survey, which focused on the GRC-related effects of social networking, found that 58 percent of executives agree that reputational risk and social networking should be a boardroom issue, but only 15 percent of respondents say it actually is.

Companies large and small are racing to virtualize their servers, storage, desktops, and networks in an effort to simplify and consolidate, mainly for the purpose of saving money. However, as organizations expand their virtualization efforts, these environments pose significant management risks.

Following Sarbanes, companies needed a more disciplined, efficient, effective and, in most cases, a more centralized approach to managing their risk functions. The need still exists today: half of respondents to an Ernst & Young risk survey acknowledged that there are gaps in their organization's risk coverage and sixty-seven percent report that they have overlapping coverage among two or more risk functions.

A new PricewaterhouseCoopers report projects that the number of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) cases and the severity of penalties will most likely continue to rise. The report contains some useful guidance, including steps related to implementing an anti-corruption program.

Philip Peck, Director and Practice Leader for CFO Services at Palladium Group, Inc., discusses the role of Finance in aligning financial and operation plans with strategic goals in this BPM Resource Center podcast.