When news broke this spring that the Securities and Exchange Commission had launched an informal investigation into the bribery scandals plaguing Siemens, CFOs in Europe gave a collective shudder. Combined with the announcement that the U.S. Department of Justice also had the German electronics and engineering company in its sights, the SEC news confirmed what many CFOs suspected: that America's crackdown on overseas bribery is targeting both U.S. and foreign companies.
And as the long arm of U.S. justice stretches across the Atlantic, CFOs in Europe aren't just worried about fines and reputational damage; concerns are also growing that their own countries' regulators will take their cue from the United States and raise the heat.
That would be a radical change.
Source: CFO, http://www.cfo.com