On 11 December 2020, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) released its consultation paper regarding proposals to update the entry requirements for persons seeking to be licensed to engage in regulated activities, and ongoing competency standards for intermediaries and individual practitioners (e.g. responsible officers (ROs), licensed representatives (LRs), executive officers (EOs) and relevant individuals (ReIs)) ...
In response to ongoing pleas for guidance, the Department of Labor (DOL) has published an informal outline expressing its views on how retirement plan administrators should be addressing missing or unresponsive participants. Through contrasting lists of "red flags" and "best practices," the publication reveals the DOL's expectations of plan administrators and provides helpful guideposts for them to follow ...
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued to Congress its annual bid protest report. As discussed below, this year's report is noteworthy for multiple reasons, including that it shows that protesters received some form of relief from the procuring agency in more than half of the protests filed with the GAO in FY 2020, and the GAO's use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) increased by 210% in FY 2020 ...
In perhaps the last major legislative action under this presidential administration, on New Year’s Day 2021, Congress passed—over President Trump’s veto—what could be the most significant anti-money laundering (AML) statute since the Patriot Act of 2001, as part of the annual National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA) ...
On January 1, 2020, Congress overrode President Trump’s veto to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 6395 – 116th Congress (2019-20)), which includes the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (the “AML Act”). The AML Act revises the Bank Secrecy Act to bolster the government’s power to identify and regulate suspicious banking activity ...
CONGRESS PASSES TRADEMARK MODERNIZATION ACT LEGISLATION In December 2020, the U.S. Congress took action that will have a significant effect on brand holders. At the end of the year, Congress passed the Trademark Modernization Act (“TMA”) that, inter alia, provides additional tools to the USPTO to respond to the rise in improper behavior in trademark filings including filing fraudulent claims of use ...
The Biden administration implemented a regulatory rule freeze affecting all federal agency rules that had not gone into effect as of Jan. 20, 2021. At its core, the regulatory rule freeze requires all pending final rules to be delayed at least 60 days in order for the Biden administration to review and opine on the necessity and scope of affected rules. During this delay period, the administration may review, revise, and possibly rescind federal administrative rules ...
Over the last several years, banks of all sizes have successfully partnered with emerging fintech companies to offer innovative loan products to a broader range of customers. Under a typical form of this partnership, a fintech, which is subject to the policies of the partner bank, will market loan products, take and process loan applications, and will service those loans once they are funded ...
This article looks at trends, including the response to COVID-19, which we expect to impact the mid-market in 2021. Last year we gave COVID-19 a quick mention in our ‘look at the year ahead’. Nobody foresaw the impact it would have. As the market enters a new year, there remains the uncertainty that we’ve grown familiar with ...
The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement has effectively brought an end to state aid and a new regime of subsidy control has come into effect ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ report: ‘Can real estate help solve the productivity puzzle?. To access this free report, please click on the download link to the right of this page. The Covid pandemic has clearly had a significant impact on our society, the economy and everyday life, with numerous sectors having found life in lockdown incredibly challenging ...
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has just released its annual statistical overview[1] of False Claims Act (FCA) and other fraud actions for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY2020)[2], and the numbers tell a mixed story. The total of just over $2.2 billion in settlements and judgments represents a decline of more than one-quarter in recoveries from FY2019,[3] likely reflecting workforce, logistical, and judicial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic ...
The majority of people with a mobile phone or access to the internet have received unsolicited emails or calls from telemarketers (cold marketing). While the practice of cold marketing is decades-old, the recent awareness in data protection and privacy has affected this concept in recent times, particularly in relation to access to the data of consumers ...
Safe at Home Address Confidentiality Programs (ACPs) have been adopted in many states to protect domestic violence victims’ addresses and other personal information from collection and disclosure. Financial services institutions are taking strides to protect the data of participants in ACPs, but the financial services industry also faces some of the most complex issues with ACP compliance ...
There were big changes in 2020 in the world of restructuring and insolvency legislation with the introduction of two new restructuring tools: the Moratorium and the Restructuring Plan, as well as the reintroduction of Crown preference. However, due to the government-imposed moratorium while the pandemic runs its course, we have seen hardly any real effects of those reforms ...
This is the first in our series of articles in which we will look at how Brexit and the EU-UK trade deal impacts research and development. In July 2020, the Government published its Research and Development Roadmap, which sets out the UK’s ambitious long-term objectives for investment in science and research to deliver economic growth and societal benefits across the UK ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global shock to businesses everywhere. Uncertainty about its path, duration and magnitude has wreaked havoc on many of our commercial clients. The associated government-mandated shutdown orders have drastically impacted businesses’ ability to make timely rental payments. The Bankruptcy Code does not generally allow debtors to unilaterally abate or modify the terms of their property leases ...
On 12 January 2021, David Mathias, Tim Willis, Sam Grange and Matthew Stimson from our Planning & Environmental team hosted a webinar to discuss the main changes introduced to the existing ‘Standard Method’ used for assessing housing need in England and Wales ...
In the state of Ohio, a light-duty job offer is a strategic way to either bring an injured worker back to the workforce or bar temporary total compensation, should the injured worker reject a valid offer. Either way, it can aid employers in eliminating, minimizing, and/or stopping temporary total disability compensation from being paid in a claim ...
On January 13, the Illinois legislature unanimously passed the Predatory Loan Prevention Act (SB 1792) (“PLPA”), which would prohibit lenders from charging more than 36% APR on consumer loans. Specifically, the PLPA would apply to any non-commercial loan made to a consumer in Illinois, including closed-end and open-end credit, retail installment sales contracts, and motor vehicle retail installment sales contracts ...
As from 1 January 2021 EU law will no longer apply in the UK. In response to questions from our cross-border commercial real estate investor and financier client base, this blog briefly summarises main relevant changes to be taken into account for a Dutch CREF loan agreement, whereby the lender is located in the UK or the loan could be sold or syndicated to lenders located in the UK ...
Funding legal fees can be a worry and add to the pressure at an already stressful time. Accessing funds for legal fees may be difficult if assets are tied up, or income streams are for whatever reason inaccessible. We know that this can often lead to people going it alone and losing out on much needed expert advice; a decision that can have long lasting and costly implications. We recommend you consider the following options before deciding to go it alone ...
We would like to inform you about recent updates concerning regulation of digital currency in Russia. Background At the end of July 2020, the President of the Russian Federation signed the Federal Law No. 259-FZ “On Digital Financial Assets, Digital Currency and on Amendments to the Certain Legal Acts of the Russian Federation” (“DFA Law”). This introduced the first large-scale regulations on (i) digital financial assets and (ii) digital currency ...
Key issues The EU Insolvency Regulation has ceased to apply to the UK The English court acquires new grounds for jurisdiction under the EU EXIT Regulations Insolvency proceedings opened in an EU Member State may be recognised by the UK courts based on the UNCITRAL Model Law Cross-border insolvencies between the EU and the UK will likely become more time consuming, complex and expensive Recognition of UK scheme of arrangements is subject to the Hague Choice of Court Convention or t
