The Temporary Measures for Reducing the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Bill 2020 (“the Covid-19 Bill”) was tabled for its first reading in the Dewan Rakyat of Malaysia on Wednesday, 12 August 2020 ...
On 31 July 2020, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued consultation papers on Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Public-offered Securities Investment Fund Managers (the Measures, available here in Chinese)and the Provisions on Issues concerning the Implementation of the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Public-offered Securities Investment Fund Managers (the Implementation Provisions, available here in Chinese) ...
On 8 April 2020, the Government rolled out the first tranche of the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) for subsidising wages of employees (see our client alerts dated 14 and 20 May 2020 for details of the ESS and its implementation). The Government has just announced details of the second tranche of the ESS covering September to November 2020, which are summarised below ...
This Article was originally published in Issue 7.5 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. Companies around the globe are having to make urgent decisions to keep their employees safe and ensure business continuity in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to fulfil these goals, companies need to find the right balance between providing a safe working environment and respecting their employees’ privacy, which can prove to be quite difficult in practice ...
You’ve been to the webinars about COVID-19. You’ve read the trade publication tips. You’ve implemented measures to protect your workers. You’re ahead of the game, right? Well, you’re certainly ahead of the sheriff who reportedly instructed his employees not to wear masks in the office. If a visitor enters Sheriff Billy Wood’s office with a mask, she or he will be instructed to remove it ...
In June, the European Commission has published the "White Paper on levelling the playing field as regards foreign subsidies". For the first time that the European Commission has brought together State aid and investment control as well as trade defence instruments. Companies coming from third countries can expect costly and lengthy examination procedures in M&A transactions, but also new hurdles for other activities in the internal market ...
When the corona pandemic broke out, many employers allowed their employees to work in home office or even forced them to do so. In the meantime, many uncertainties have been clarified and the desire for normality is increasing among both employers and employees. Therefore, in the following, we will describe what employers must take into account when employees return from home office. 1 ...
Due to the Corona pandemic and the associated economic effects, numerous companies were forced to announce short-time work over the past few months. This raises the question for employers to what extent it is still possible to hire during short-time work and what effects this has on short-time working compensation. NEW HIRES DURING SHORT-TIME WORK First of all, a distinction must be made between new hires before and after the introduction of short-time work ...
On August, 18, 2020, the CFPB issued a new proposed rule to create a new category of “seasoned qualified mortgages” (Seasoned QMs) that would receive the safe harbor conclusive presumption of meeting the Ability to Repay standard. The proposed rule would allow certain loans that meet specified criteria and are held in portfolio by the lender for three years to qualify as QMs ...
While many of us are working from home due to the current pandemic, criminals and scammers are also hard at work from home and have been increasingly more brazen since the stay-at-home orders have been put into effect. In popular media, we see television shows such as “90 Day Fiancé,” “Catfish: The TV Show,” and others depicting people being scammed by unscrupulous individuals online who are pretending to be someone they are not ...
From 1 September 2020, new rules on temporary unemployment will enter into force. Companies and sectors that are substantially affected by the COVID-19 crisis can continue to apply the current and simplified COVID-19 force majeure temporary unemployment regime until 31 December 2020. The list of in-scope sectors has yet to be determined by the minister of work ...
In order to tackle the effects of the Corona crisis, it is planned at EU level to temporarily facilitate the raising of equity capital for companies. This will enable certain issuers to publish a shortened prospectus with only 30 pages instead of a full prospectus to issue shares. Through this, issuers will have the option to issue shares at short notice, without bureaucracy and inexpensively, thereby improving the debt-to-equity ratio in their balance sheets ...
On 7 August 2020, The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Exchange) published a consultation paper on proposed changes in respect of the Exchange’s disciplinary regime. The proposals have a particular emphasis on strengthening the Exchange’s powers to hold accountable, and impose appropriate sanctions on, individuals responsible for misconduct and breaches of the Listing Rules ...
COVID-19 has undoubtedly had a significant impact on workplaces across the UK. However, what is becoming increasingly clear is the impact which it has had and continues to have on women in work. We consider the statistics and how employers should respond. What do the statistics show? 1. Sectors During lockdown, women were more likely to work in the sectors that had to completely shut-down such as hospitality (23% of women vs 16% men in these industries) ...
Businesses across the country have wondered how the new Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery (SIGPR) will enforce the CARES Act’s loan requirements, especially with the large number of loan and forgiveness applications. Until recently, the answer was unclear. Press releases have announced Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) between SIGPR and three U.S. Attorney’s Offices to collaborate on investigating and prosecuting CARES Act violations ...
The Algarve has been seriously affected by the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, on 29 July 2020, the Portuguese Parliament published Resolution no. 51/2020 in which it recommend the adoption of a social and economic emergency plan for the Algarve (“Plano de emergência social e económico para o Algarve”) by the Portuguese Government. The recommended measures set out in Resolution no ...
On 13th August, Federal Law dated 13.07.2020, No. 210-FZ specifying the procedure and establishing new rules of severance payments, in case of dismissal due to liquidation of the organization, or redundancy, comes into force.In case of the dismissal due to the organization’s liquidation, all payments shall be made to employees prior to its completion ...
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has recently published frequently asked questions addressing leave-sharing plans related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following IRS Notice 2006-59, the IRS has confirmed that employers may set up leave-sharing plans to permit their employees to deposit leave in an employer-sponsored leave bank for use by other employees who have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic ...
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recently published a report on its 12-month review of the Revised FATF Standards on Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers, and a report on so-called stablecoins which highlighted associated risks of money laundering/terrorism financing (“ML/TF”) ...
The GFMA recently provided its response to the Financial Stability Board’s (“FSB”) consultation paper (“the Paper”) titled Addressing The Regulatory, Supervisory And Oversight Challenges Raised By “Global Stablecoin” Arrangements. The GFMA put forward certain recommendations to support the implementation of global stablecoin (“GSC”) arrangements provided for in the Paper ...
The Hong Kong Money Authority (HKMA) published a White Paper on 30 June 2020 to set out its recommendations and supervisory expectations on green and sustainable banking around four areas: governance, strategy, risk management and disclosure. The HKMA advised AIs which are subsidiaries of international banks to assess relevance of any parent bank’s climate policy in the context of its Hong Kong operations and ensure that local specialties are addressed ...
In May 2020, the Asia Pacific Loan Market Association (APLMA), the Loan Market Association (LMA) and the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (LSTA) jointly published two guidance papers on green loan principles and sustainability linked loan principles, seeking to address some of the most frequently asked questions about green loans and sustainability linked loans (SLLs) ...
From 1 September 2020, new rules on temporary unemployment will enter into force. Companies and sectors that are substantially impacted by the Covid-19 crisis can continue to apply the current and simplified ‘Covid-19 force majeure’ temporary unemployment regime until 31 December 2020. The list of in-scope sectors is yet to be determined by the Minister of Work ...
