Page 74 - Pay Magazine s2014

Government watch
What’s hot for LegaL, CompLianCe pros in 2016
Viewpoint
By David Beam, Mayer Brown LLP
In Viewpoints, payments professionals share their perspectives on the industry. Paybefore’s goal is to present many points of view to
o er readers new insights and information. The opinions expressed in Viewpoints are not necessarily those of Paybefore. This article is intended for general information purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. Readers are urged not to act upon the infor- mation without rst consulting an attorney.
Like many law rm lawyers,
I spend a great deal of time with my feet on my desk and my hand on my chin,
musing about what in-house coun- sel and compliance personnel want to read about. For this article, I took a di erent approach. I actually talked to in-house coun- sel and compliance personnel and asked them what they’re most focused on going into 2016.
My Methodology
At the outset, I’ll confess that “methodology” might be a strong term. This was not a scienti c survey. To identify interviewees,
I opened my contacts and started emailing people. The response was tremendous—almost every- one I asked agreed to talk (al- though many preferred not to talk for attribution).
What follows are the common themes and highlights from the interviews. Of course, everyone is focused on some issues unique to
their individual companies, so this isn’t a comprehensive list
of every issue identi ed. How- ever, there were several common concerns and themes that
arose from discussions with a broad cross-section of pay- ments professionals.
All of these interviews were con- ducted in December 2015, and this article was written shortly thereafter. The comments may not re ect developments that have occurred since that time.
The ‘Findings’
U.s. is a Focus
Even though most of the people I interviewed work for companies
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