This is a briefing on the CIAC Memorandum Circular No. 01-2020 dated June 10, 2020,1 a COVID-19 related issuance. A. Authority to Hold Virtual Proceedings B. No Change in the Deadline for the Issuance of Final Awards C. In-Person Proceedings D. Conduct of Virtual Proceedings ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CIAC’s Memorandum Circular No ...
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in an unprecedented manner and, in just a few months, it has had such a profound impact on the world of work. As a result, physical office premises were shut down and many employees were forced to work from home with little or no security policy in place or a viable data backup and recovery plan ...
This article first appeared on the website of the Corporate and M&A Law Committee of the Legal Practice Division of the International Bar Association (here), and is reproduced by kind permission of the International Bar Association, London, UK. © International Bar Association. The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed countries across the world into an unprecedented humanitarian and economic crisis ...
Extension on short-selling banThe Securities Commission Malaysia (“SCM”) and Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (“Bursa Malaysia”) announced a further extension, until 31 December 2020, of the existing suspension for the suspension of all short selling, other than permitted short selling, on the stock exchange of Bursa Malaysia. The scope of the ban remains the same ...
International Filings via Madrid ProtocolOn 27 December 2019, Malaysia acceded to the Madrid Protocol, opening Malaysia up to the international trademark filing system. Parallel to the accession, as many are aware, the new Trademarks Act 2019 also came into force on the same date, establishing, amongst others, the law and practical guidelines for the international filing system.With over 1 ...
Key Points Small employers (with fewer than 500 employees) and governmental employers who are required to provide employees with paid sick and expanded family leave related to COVID-19 are required to report the amounts paid on Form W-2. IRS guidance provides information about how to report paid leave on employees’ Forms W-2 ...
Key Points If finalized as proposed, a Department of Labor (DOL) proposed rule would require plan fiduciaries to select investments based solely on pecuniary factors. The proposed rule would also tighten conditions for treating environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors as pecuniary factors plan fiduciaries may consider in selecting investments ...
The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recently released streamlined forms employers may use to coordinate leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ...
On July 23, SBA announced that lenders may begin submitting PPP loan forgiveness requests to SBA on August 10. To assist lenders, SBA issued a Procedural Notice with new guidance regarding lenders’ reviews of forgiveness applications. The Notice may be found here: https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/5000-20038.pdf The Notice reaffirmed forgiveness guidance and rules previously issued ...
In March, due to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) the Ministry of Health established that an employee required to quarantine at home in accordance with Ministry of Health guidelines would automatically receive a sick leave certificate which could present to the employer and receive sick pay for the quarantine period ...
The pandemic revealed a great need to remotely execute acts and contracts, avoiding the need to meet to sign the documents or appear before a notary. This increased the doubts about the regulation on electronic signatures, especially in order to understand under what circumstances they can be used and when not ...
Cyber frauds, in particular email scams, have become a common trend of crime in Hong Kong in recent years. Fraudsters use various means to deceive the victims into transferring money to unauthorised bank accounts. Upon discovery of the fraud and based on information obtained from the bank, the victim may apply for an injunction from the court to freeze the recipients’ bank accounts and if the victim is lucky enough, there will be some credit balance left to recover ...
Key Points New proposal would allow investment advisors to provide advice to ERISA retirement plan participants for a fee, despite potential conflicts of interest. Reinstates five-part test from 1975 for determining when an investment advisor provides investment advice as a fiduciary to a plan participant. The U.S ...
As workplaces continue to reopen, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued additional guidance addressing various return to work issues and leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The new DOL guidance, summarized below, appears on the DOL’s FFCRA Questions and Answers page ...
The Federal Reserve has announced that the Main Street Lending Program will now be available to non-profits such as educational institutions, hospitals, and social service organizations, and has issued a set of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the new Nonprofit Organization New Loan Facility and Nonprofit Organization Expanded Loan Facility ...
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, local municipalities and state governments throughout the country have implemented stay-at-home orders and mandated closures of businesses and restaurants to lower the spread of the disease. California, after having permitted much of the state to reopen businesses, has seen a recent spike in COVID-19 cases and on July 13th implemented a new statewide order to curb the increase, reimposing certain business closures ...
In the rush to seek relief under force majeure clauses following the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is likely that some claims were made incorrectly, albeit in good faith. Particularly in circumstances where force majeure relief is linked to a purported termination, the party seeking to terminate needs to comply with any contractual requirements and ensure that the event relied upon is capable of being caught by the force majeure clause ...
As we have outlined in Part 1 and Part 2 of our blog series, ‘Returning the Workplace to Safe Operation’, employers have a duty to reduce the risk of COVID-19 in the workplace as much as reasonably practical. Consequently, employers may determine it is appropriate to conduct certain active screening, such as questionnaires, temperature screening, and testing ...
As organisations start planning their post COVID-19 workforce arrangements, leaders need to consider how these new and amended work practices will help or hinder their efforts to strengthen their risk culture. While having a distributed workforce increases some challenges to improving risk culture, it also provides opportunities which need to be embraced. It is becoming increasingly clear that the post COVID-19 workplace will be very different to what it was before the pandemic ...
Unfortunately, financial exploitation is a significant and growing area of concern, particularly with elderly investors or those with diminished capacity. Investment advisers are facing a client base who is increasingly older, and with that comes the increased likelihood of an investment adviser encountering possible financial exploitation ...
Key Points Participants in defined contribution retirement plans, such as 401(k), 401(a), 403(b), or governmental 457(b) plans, can skip their required minimum distribution (RMD) payments for 2020. If RMDs for 2020 have already been received, participants have until August 31, 2020 to rollover the RMD into an eligible retirement plan ...
With federal privacy legislation stalled and indefinitely delayed, states have moved forward to push an impressive number of privacy laws forward over the last several years. Some of these laws are still relatively obscure, but are being increasingly enforced by state regulators and through litigation ...
The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (the "CEWS") Is a key component of the Government of Canada's COVID-19 economic response plan. The purpose of the CEWS, adopted on April 11, 2020, is to help Canadians keep their jobs during the crisis and help companies maintain an employment relationship with their employees in order to recover more quickly when the economy returns to normal ...
