Member Articles

This past year has seen many changes in the community banking industry. Some of these issues we expected and some had more of an impact than maybe we would have thought. As we reflect and look forward to 2016, we asked several of our colleagues to weigh in regarding what we saw, what we expect and how to best prepare for the coming new year. Timothy R ...

For better or worse, lenders have become increasingly familiar with the strange dynamic that is the post-bankruptcy minefield created by their borrowers filing a bankruptcy petition. Immediately, lenders begin thinking about how they can minimize the write-off, how they can reduce exposure, how they can avoid violations of the automatic stay, whether they can convince a borrower to reaffirm debt, and many other questions that often must be analyzed situationally ...

Virtual currencies are once again at the forefront of discussion about top issues facing community banks and the financial industry as a whole. The Independent Community Bankers of America (“ICBA”), a trade association representing more than 6,500 community banks, recently published its list of top issues for the fourth quarter of 2015. Among them were the risks associated with virtual currencies ...

On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed H.R. 22, Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, into law. The new law reauthorizes federal highway and transit programs for five years. While most of the attention on the legislation has focused on the new funding for transportation infrastructure, the measure also includes significant policy changes related to motor vehicle safety and enforcement actions by the National Highway Transit Safety Administration (NHTSA) ...

On December 18, 2015, Congress passed the “Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015” (the “Act”), which provides significant reforms to the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980 (“FIRPTA”) and to the rules applicable to real estate investment trusts (“REITs”). To read the full alert, click here ...

In a situation where a taxpayer could choose between two transactions, the law does not require the taxpayer to choose a transaction which would bring along the largest amount of payable taxes. Taxpayers have the right to organise their activities in a manner which would entail the smallest possible tax burden and the state cannot reproach them for it. The only issue can be about distinguishing the permitted solutions of tax optimisation from obtaining dishonest tax concessions ...

On 2 November 2015, the South African National Treasury published a Draft Carbon Tax Bill (the “Bill”) for public comment, with the comment period commencing immediately and continuing until 15 December 2015. Measurement, reporting and verification (“MRV”) of emissions data arising from greenhouse gas related activities underpin the effective functioning of the proposed carbon tax ...

The September 2015 issue of the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) included an international briefing article by SyCipLaw partner Arlene M. Maneja entitled “Competition law enacted.”Download a PDF copy of the article or read the article online at the IFLR website ...

The Philippine chapter of Getting the Deal Through: Islamic Finance & Markets 2016 was contributed by SyCipLaw Managing Partner Rafael A. Morales with Amer Hussein N. Mambuay. The chapter includes information on policies, legislation and supervision covering Islamic finance in the Philippines, contracting concepts, products, and updates and trends ...

The Delaware Division of Corporations (the “Division”) recently announced that effective December 1, 2015, its Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”) filing office will no longer accept paper UCC filings submitted directly to the State of Delaware via regular mail, courier or fax. The Division will instead require that all UCC filings be submitted to the Division electronically.To read the full alert, click here ...

As of 3 February 2016, the new Law on Consensual Financial Restructuring (“Law”) will introduce an improved framework for voluntary debt restructuring in Serbia (“Restructuring”). The Law was adopted as a part of a national strategy to address the increasing number of non-performing loans in the country, which was adopted in August 2015 (“Strategy”).[1] The Law will replace the existing Law on Consensual Financial Restructuring of 2011, which produced modest results in practice ...

To incubate is to keep something in a suitable environment for a term where it can develop to its full potential. Increasingly, the concept is being applied to hedge funds, where “to incubate” implies structured conditions for the development and verification of investment strategies over time. As such, an incubator fund is ideal for start-up and emerging managers who do not have much capital but aim to attract greater sums of capital in the near future ...

The Canada Public Sector Pension Investment Board launches a lawsuit against Saba Capital: Lessons for fund managers when valuing illiquid securitiesOn September 25, 2015 the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (the “PSP Investment Board”) filed a lawsuit before the New York State Supreme Court against Saba Capital, the hedge fund managed by Boaz Weinstein (the former co-chief of the credit business at Deutsche Bank AG), for allegedly “manipulating the value” of certain of Saba Capital’s inve

I. The Liechtenstein Tax ReformThe former Liechtenstein Tax Act dated back to 1961. It was completely revised and the new Tax Act entered into force on 1 January 2011 (hereafter referred to as "Tax Reform"). The ratio for the year 2008 between the overall tax revenues in Liechtenstein and its GDP was 16.9%. In comparison, the equivalent figure in the USA was 20.3% and 23.1% in Germany.Liechtenstein has AAA rating and is totally debt free ...

The court of appeal of Quebec recently ruled on a leave to appeal from an interlocutory judgment dismissing a wellington type motion seeking to order an insurer to take up the defence of its insured.The decision of the Court inTechnologies CII inc.v.Société d’assurances générales Northbridge1follows the one issued on April 21, 2015 by the Honourable Michel A ...

CANADIAN INVESTMENTS IN CUBATheHelms-Burton Actand its risks for Canadian investors in CubaRecommandations for investorsProspects in the face of the thaw in U.S ...

Corporations that are in need of liquidities can, simply put, not afford to wait until the end of the fiscal year to receive payment of refundable tax credits. For this reason, some lenders offer to advance funds to eligible taxpaying corporations (hereinafter “Taxpayers”) in the form of a loan, while taking security on their future tax credits as collateral (“Advance Tax Credit Financing”) ...

International Financial Law Review (IFLR) in association with Euromoney Yearbooks recently published the Global Banking & Financial Policy Review 2015/2016. The Philippine section was contributed by SyCipLaw Managing Partner Rafael A. Morales. The section is an Overview of Legal and Regulatory Developments in the Philippines such as the Liberalization of Financial Sector, Islamic Banking and Finance, Financial Consumer Protection, and Prospects ...

With more than three decades of experience in banking in North Carolina and Virginia, Park Sterling’s CEO James C. Cherry has a lot to say about the state of community banks and their future. He graciously took the time to address his successes, leadership philosophy, and some of the best advice he ever received. It is well worth your time to read. Park Sterling, a regional, community-focused financial services company with approximately $2 ...

Cyber-risk is a witch’s brew of reputational, operational, legal and financial dangers. This toxic combination exposes a financial institution to a potentially existential hazard when an intrusion occurs. The only way to mitigate (because an intrusion cannot be prevented) is proper planning. To quote Benjamin Franklin, “If you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail.” Cyberattacks are not only increasing in sophistication, but are increasingly focusing on smaller financial institutions ...

Under Article 18 (1) of Law No. 7 of 1983 on Income Tax (as lastly amended by Law No. 36 of 2008 – “Income Tax Law”), the Minister of Finance (“MOF”) is authorized to determine the debt to equity ratio (“DER”) of corporate taxpayers for the income tax calculation purposes. To implement this, on 9 September 2015, the MOF issued MOF Regulation No. 169/PMK/010/2015 on the Determination of a Company’s Debt to Equity Ratio for Income Tax Calculation Purposes (“MOF Regulation 169/2015”) ...

In an attempt to assist the stabilization of the Indonesian currency, Bank Indonesia (BI) changed the limit of the maximum value of foreign currency (US$) purchased through a spot transaction which is done without a specific purpose (underlying documents), from US$100,000 per month for each customer/foreign party to US$25,000 or equivalent per month for each customer. This new limit is set out under Bank Indonesia Regulation No ...

NEW REQUIREMENTS FOR PRIVATE PLACEMENTS(“Regulation 45-106”)OBLIGATION TO KNOW YOUR INVESTOR WELLIssuer’s obligations:Ask questionsVerify the investor’s declared income and assetsConfirm the relationship between the investor and the issuerObtain proof of the investor’s statusKeep the documents on file

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