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 ...
Banco Nacional de Angola (“BNA”) continues to be very active in producing foreign exchange legislation. It recently revised the rules on foreign exchange operations of current invisibles, goods and capital, carried out by resident and non-resident individuals, through Notice 17/20 of 3 August (the“Notice”). The main change made by this notice concerns non-resident foreign workers (“expatriates”) ...
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 ...
How Wirecard skirted regulatory scrutiny by jurisdiction-shopping and canny intra-group structuring. It would have been the quintessential business success story. Founded in Munich in 1999, this small payment processor for online gambling and pornography sites grew so massive that, by 2018, it had displaced Commerzbank from Germany’s prestigious Dax 30 index. At its peak, the juggernaut was valued at more than €24 billion (S$38.6 billion) ...
It is no secret that business bankruptcies are surging in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, chapter 11 filings increased 26% in the first half of 2020,[1] and some expect the number of cases to increase even more in the coming months.[2] From retailers to airlines to telecommunications companies, few sectors of the economy are immune. As a result, more and more businesses will face the prospect of one or more of their customers filing chapter 11 ...
The High Court has left the door open for a negligence claim to be pursued against a UK company on behalf of a shipyard worker who fell to his death dismantling an oil tanker at a Bangladeshi yard.1 The vessel had been sold to a buyer on terms requiring it to be scrapped in an environmentally sound manner and in accordance with good health and safety practices ...
China has become the largest emerging market economy and the second largest economy in the world. As a result, many Chinese companies have elected to access the U.S. capital markets for their financing needs. As of June 2020, there are over 200 China-based issuers listed on U.S. exchanges with a collective market capitalization of over $1.15 trillion. With the rising geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
In April 2019, with the introduction of House Bill 904, a bi-partisan effort was made to strengthen cyber security in North Carolina. H.B ...
On 22 July 2020, data protection authorities from Australia, Canada, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Switzerland and United Kingdom (together the Authorities), issued an open letter (Letter) on global privacy expectations of video teleconferencing companies (VTC companies)[1]. Why there is such a Letter? As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Authorities have witnessed an increasing use of VTC tools, both in social and business contexts ...
Thursday 16 July 2020 saw the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) issue its decision on the validity of two international data transfer mechanisms - the “Privacy Shield” mechanism, which allowed for transfers between the EU and the US, and the Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) which are of more general application. Both of these mechanisms were confirmed by decisions of the European Commission ...
In Japan, the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) is the primary law that regulates data protection issues ...
On Thursday, July 16, 2020, the European Union's top court issued a landmark ruling that will immediately transform how companies can lawfully transfer EU personal data to the United States. The court invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, one of the most common mechanisms used by U.S. companies in connection with cross-border data transfers ...
On 23 June 2020, the Chinese government announced the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment Access (2020 Edition) (2020 National Negative List) and the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment Access in Pilot Free Trade Zones (2020 Edition) (2020 FTZ Negative List). The 2020 National Negative List and the 2020 FTZ Negative List (2020 Negative Lists) will come into force on 23 July 2020 ...
An application software (app) is a program designed to help customers perform particular activities. These apps, which are usually on our electronic devices, are used to control several things ranging from health & fitness, music, movies, online shopping, gaming to mobile money transfers and even household appliances. In this article, our Davidson Oturu, breaks down the IP considerations app developers should note ...
A ship may be arrested in Malaysia as long as the claim of the arresting party falls under any of the provisions of Section 20(2) and Section 21 of the Supreme Court Act 1981 of England and Wales.Any party that wants to arrest a ship in Malaysia must strictly comply with Order 70 of the Rules of Court 2012 (the ROC 2012), which governs admiralty proceedings in the High Court.On the arrest of a ship, it will not be allowed to work without the sheriff's express permission ...
With the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) since 18 March 2020, the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) as well as the Recovery Movement Control Order, the Government has issued a number of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic ...
During these unprecedented times, developers all over the world are actively looking for solutions to deal with underperforming real estate. For developers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), real estate investment funds (otherwise known as REITs) may offer a solution to the problem. A REIT is a public or private investment fund which is established to invest a certain percentage (as stipulated by law) of its assets in real estate ...
