Compliance Newsflashes: UMB Bank Selects Financial Tracking Technologies for Mutual Fund Compliance, and more

UMB Bank, a Kansas City, Mo.-based investment bank with over $7.2 billion in assets, has selected Greenwich, Conn.-based Financial Tracking Technologies (FTT) for SEC compliance solutions. FTT is a financial software and financial data processing company that provides automated and consistent data scanning.

Companies using its technologies to detect undesired trends in securities and financial portfolios and material violations of compliance requirements. FTT's areas of service include mutual fund service provider oversight, fair and timely trade allocation, anti-money laundering, portfolio process consistency, pre-trade clearance, automated 204A-1 reporting, best execution, favoritism/decision checking, excessive account activity alerting, and safeguarding of client assets.

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SEC Extends Compliance Dates for Non-Accelerated Filers and Foreign Private Issuers

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has further extended the compliance dates for non-accelerated filers and foreign private issuers regarding amendments to its rules under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that were adopted on June 5, 2003, pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The amendments require a company to include in its annual reports a report by management on the company's internal control over financial reporting and an accompanying auditor's report.

The Commission extended the original Section 404 compliance dates for all issuers in February 2004. Under the latest extension, a company that's not required to file its annual and quarterly reports on an accelerated basis (non-accelerated filer) and a foreign private issuer filing its annual reports on Form 20-F or 40-F, must begin to comply with the internal control over financial reporting requirements for its first fiscal year ending on or after July 15, 2006. This is a one-year extension from the previously established July 15, 2005, compliance date for non-accelerated filers and foreign private issuers. The Commission similarly has extended the compliance date for these companies relating to requirements regarding evaluation of internal control over financial reporting and management certification requirements.

"The Section 404 requirements are among the most important parts of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and I encourage public companies to devote the necessary resources to make sure those requirements are implemented effectively," said Donald Nicolaisen, the SEC's chief accountant, in the press release. "I don't underestimate the effort this will require for smaller companies and foreign private issuers, but this extension will provide additional time for those issuers to take a good hard look at their internal controls, as the Act contemplates."