June 12, 2023 By: Michael Flynn On June 8, the CFPB announced that it has ordered a medical debt collector to pay a $1.7 million fine and provide refunds for alleged violations of debt collection rules ...
A gym franchisor recently secured a preliminary injunction against its former franchisee prohibiting the franchisee from operating an independent gym on the same location and using the franchisor’s trade secrets. Chris O’Hare, along with his company, (O’Hare), was a former Core Progression gym franchisee ...
When the Supreme Court in 2020 issued its decision in Liu v. SEC, placing limits upon the Securities and Exchange Commission's ability to obtain disgorgement, many observers believed that the decision would significantly diminish the SEC's capability to seek and obtain significant disgorgement recoveries in civil enforcement actions alleging violations of the securities laws ...
What is changing with how prudential regulators view fintech partnerships? How is this affecting financial institutions TPRM programs? Prudential regulators appear to be acknowledging the role that fintech partnerships have in the marketplace, both to expand banking services to previous unbanked/underbanked populations, and to allow smaller, regional banks to develop new markets for their services ...
What do a squeak toy, whiskey, and dog poop have in common? If you are silently thinking to yourself “absolutely nothing,” it may surprise you to hear that the U.S. Supreme Court has spent months considering this question. On June 8, 2023, in a long-awaited win for trademark owners, SCOTUS ruled that a lower court erred when it issued a decision finding that a dog toy that parodies a famous liquor bottle, was covered by First Amendment free speech protections ...
This pilot is a first-of-its-kind use of distributed ledger (Web3) SLC technology and is expected to deliver reduced operational costs and improved risk management for lenders. Based on natural language contract terms developed by SVW and converted to SLCs using Hunit’s AI-powered tools, MMB’s clients will benefit from simplified processes, streamlined monitoring, and improved contract fulfilment ...
In an uncertain market, there is often a renewed emphasis from investors not just on liquidity and rate of return on property investment opportunities, but also on the structuring of legal interests and the ability to ‘exit’ from a scheme ...
The Ministry of Economy published the new proposal to update the Regulation on consumer information on mortgage loans (Decree No. 42 of 2012), which improves consumer understanding of financial information and promotes the comparison of products offered by financial institutions ...
The 2023 Foreign Bank Tracker, now in its eighth year reveals capital flow trends into Australia via foreign banks, and market analysis of the results ...
May 31, 2023 By: Stephanie Shea The California Unruh Act (specifically, California Civil Code § 51) prohibits “all business establishments of every kind whatsoever” from discriminating based on citizenship or immigration status, among other things. That protection applies to all persons within the jurisdiction of California. At the federal level, (simply put,) the federal civil rights statute (specifically, 42 U.S.C. § 1981), prohibits alienage discrimination ...
Introduction Last week, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) had concluded the negotiation of the first trade agreement under the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade.1 This is the first bilateral trade agreement since the promulgation of the Taiwan Relations Act in 1979 ...
May 26, 2023 By: Stephanie Shea The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018 amended TILA to require the CFPB to issue rulemaking addressing Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) loans. Specifically, the Act required the CFPB to apply TILA’s ability-to-repay (ATR) requirements to PACE loans and to apply TILA’s civil liability provisions to a PACE lender’s violation of those ATR requirements ...
Contents Please click on the links below to jump to the relevant section: Overview Guarantees Collateral Security Financial assistance Syndicated Lending/Agency/Trustee/Transfers Withholding, stamp and other taxes; notarial and other costs Judicial enforcement Bankruptcy proceedings Jurisdiction and waiver of Immunity Licensing LIBOR replacement Other matters Overview What are the main trends/significant developments in the lending markets in your jurisdiction? As in o
The Charities Act 2022 is being introduced in phases. From June 2023 trustees will have greater flexibility over how they procure advice to ensure the terms on which they dispose of a charity’s interests in land are the best that can reasonably be obtained. Voluntary Service Overseas is one of the latest major charities to scale down its office space as it responds to the long-term changes resulting from Covid-19 ...
The much-awaited Renters (Reform) Bill received its first reading in the House of Commons last week, on Wednesday 17 May 2023. After five years of consultation and refinement, the reforms aim to improve the leasehold system through increased regulation, digitisation and standardisation. The Bill seeks to provide greater flexibility and security for residential tenants by imposing additional restrictions on private landlords ...
In March 2022, the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act (“ECA”) was enacted and with it came the creation of a Register of Overseas Entities. Enforceable since January 2023, the register, which includes information about beneficial owners of property or land, attracts a financial penalty of up to £2,500 a day for those that did not submit information before the deadline of 31 January 2023 ...
Open Finance is becoming a pivotal element in the evolution of the European Union’s regulatory framework for payment services, most notably embodied in the anticipated Third Payment Services Directive (“PSD3”) ...
May 23, 2023 By: Alison Pear Regulation A “Plus” is an exemption from registration under the Securities Act of 1933 that permits certain eligible issuers to conduct public offerings of up to $75 million in a 12-month period to accredited and unaccredited investors ...
Overview The Law on Trusts promulgated on 2 January 2019 provides the legal framework for the creation, registration and inspection of trusts in Cambodia. To facilitate the implementation of the Trust Law, the Trust Regulator on 3 November 2022 issued Prakas 051 on the Formalities and Procedure for Inspection of Trusts (“Prakas 051”). Prakas 051 applies to the inspection of activities and operations related to the trust sector in Cambodia ...
The Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (“DICA”) has issued an undated notice where it has listed the documents that all DICA registered companies are required to submit to DICA to obtain its approval to repatriate foreign currencies out of Myanmar (the “Notice”). We understand from the Notice that it applies only to DICA registered companies ...
The IDP is valid for 10 years (unless extended) and the States are required by law to keep it under review. The DPA was about to embark on a review in 2020 but this was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the States approved an action to carry out a targeted review of the IDP between 2023 and 2025. The review The review commenced on 25 January 2023, and it focuses on amending certain policies to meet government priorities ...
