Trademark owners with registrations in EU where the UK is designated should soon receive notification for treatment of registrations and applications following the Brexit transition period. The Brexit transitional period, during which EU laws and rights have continued in force in the UK, will end on December 31, 2020. Thereafter, EU Trade Mark and Design applications and registrations (and designations of the EU) will only cover the remaining 27 EU member states ...
On November 18, 2020, the IRS released Revenue Ruling 2020-27 stating that a taxpayer who received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan cannot deduct eligible business expenses (i.e., payroll costs, mortgage loan interest, rent payments and utility payments) paid or incurred in 2020 during the covered period (as defined below) if the taxpayer reasonably expects that the PPP loan will be forgiven in the future ...
Vassily Rudomino, Senior partner of ALRUD, Ksenia Tarkhova and Ruslana Karimova, Senior associate of ALRUD, Roman Vedernikov, Associate of ALRUD, and Anastasia Kayukova, ALRUD Senior attorney, prepared an article for the eighth edition of 'The Foreign Investment Regulation Review' by Law Business Research. This review focuses on the main aspects of foreign investment regulation in various jurisdictions ...
DISPUTE RESOLUTION The National Code (Revised 2020) Act 828 (“the Act”) came into force on 15 November 2020. It replaces its predecessor the National Land Code (Act 56 of 1965) that was in force since 1 January 1966. The Act was revised by the Commissioner of Law Revision under the authority of the Revision of Laws Act 1968 ...
By resolution adopted on October 7, 2020, the state of emergency has been extended until January 31, 2021 ...
The Ohio Board of Pharmacy (Board) recently issued updated guidance detailing certain conduct pharmacists and other regulated personnel (Licensees) must report to the Board ...
On November 23, 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published in the Federal Register a proposed amendment to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) regulations that would allow lenders to accept private flood insurance policies on FHA-insured properties located in Special Flood Hazard Areas ...
On November 17, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an extension to the commercial eviction moratorium that had been previously enacted and extended on a month-to-month basis by mayoral declaration. The new commercial eviction ordinance (the “Ordinance”) keeps the majority of the terms of the current moratorium in effect, while providing a new four-tiered system for qualified tenants for repayment of deferred rent ...
The Federal government’s COVID emergency loan programs and credit facilities have moved into critical new phases. As highlighted by the recent media focus on the new SBA PPP Forgiveness Questionnaire for borrowers, both borrowers and lenders face new and challenging issues regarding these loan programs, particularly PPP loans and the Main Street Loan Program. PPP Loan Program – For most borrowers, the time period for spending PPP loan proceeds has expired ...
The Federal government’s COVID emergency loan programs and credit facilities have moved into critical new phases. As highlighted by the recent media focus on the new SBA PPP Forgiveness Questionnaire for borrowers, both borrowers and lenders face new and challenging issues regarding these loan programs, particularly PPP loans and the Main Street Loan Program. PPP Loan Program – For most borrowers, the time period for spending PPP loan proceeds has expired ...
The legal status of CBD, a naturally occurring compound found in the cannabis plant, is murky. Certain Member States are more restrictive about it than others. The Court of Justice of the EU has very recently provided clarification in the context of a preliminary ruling (case C-663/18 of 19 November 2020). This case revolves around CBD’s ban in France, after it had been imported from the Czech Republic where it was lawfully produced ...
Hong Kong has in recent times seen an increasing use of remote on-boarding of customers by banks as a result of COVID-19. Banks are generally required to pay more attention to the remote on-boarding assessment of corporate customers as opposed to individual ones due to the higher money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with corporate vehicles ...
In September 2020, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”) issued the Guideline explaining the HKMA’s interpretation of some of his oversight requirements under the Payment Systems and Stored Value Facilities Ordinance (“PSSVFO”) relating to designated Retail Payment Systems (“Designated RPS”) so as to assist system operators (“SO”) or settlement institutions (“SI”) of Designated RPS to understand and comply with such requiremen
On 21 August 2020, the HKIMR, the research arm of the Hong Kong Academy of Finance, released its second report, entitled “Artificial Intelligence in Banking: The Changing Landscape in Compliance and Supervision”. The report is intended as a starting point for understanding the broad implications of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) adoption in the banking industry, as well as in relation to compliance and supervision ...
The FSB, the organisation that coordinates the development of effective regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies at an international level, published its final report on the regulation, supervision and oversight of global stablecoin (“GSC”) arrangements (“Final Report”) in October 2020 ...
Hong Kong has in recent times seen an increasing use of remote on-boarding of customers by banks as a result of COVID-19. Banks are generally required to pay more attention to the remote on-boarding assessment of corporate customers as opposed to individual ones due to the higher money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with corporate vehicles ...
On November 25, 2020, the Brazilian Senate approved Bill of Law No 4,458/2020 ("BL 4458"), which amends Law No 11,101/2005 ("BBL"), to update the legislation regarding the judicial reorganization, pre-packaged reorganization and bankruptcy liquidation of businessmen and companies. BL 4458, which provisions have already been approved by the House of Representatives, will now be sanctioned by the President ...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expanded the definition of close contact to now evaluate exposure cumulatively over a 24-hour period such that “15 cumulative minutes of exposure at a distance of 6 feet or less can be used as an operational definition for contact investigation,”[1] Because the newly expanded definition is not limited, it impacts many different industries (inclu
The Federal Reserve has issued amended For Profit and Non-Profit Frequently Asked Questions for the Main Street Lending Program, addressing the key dates for the end of the program in December, 2020. These dates are driven by the end of the Federal Reserve’s Special Purpose Vehicle’s authority to purchase MSLP loan participations on December 31 ...
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (fka Department of Business Oversight) is one step closer to issuing final regulations that would impose new early disclosure requirements on covered commercial lenders that are CFL licensed or subject to CFL licensing. On September 11, 2020, DFPI issued 4th Round Proposed Commercial Loan Disclosures. The DFPI's rulemaking is required by California Financial Code 22804 after California enacted SB 1235 in 2018 ...
On Nov. 19, 2020, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) issued a new Risk Alert focusing on common compliance deficiencies relating to the Advisers Act and Rule 206(4)-7, otherwise known as the Compliance Rule. As a brief refresher, the Compliance Rule requires advisers to adopt and implement written policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent violations of the Advisers Act ...
Following the issuance of new rules governing the Qualified Foreign Investors (QFI) regime in September 2020 (New QFI Rules, for more information, you may refer to our earlier article here), China equities and futures trading exchanges (including the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ) and the China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX)) issued new implementation rules for QFIs at the end of October ...
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a circular last year (the Circular) in recognition of the increasing use of electronic data storage (cloud storage) for record keeping purposes. The Circular was intended to provide licensed corporations with greater flexibility in keeping regulatory records with electronic data service providers (EDSPs), as well as to clarify their general obligations in relation to electronic data ...
Hong Kong’s Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) revised the Guidelines on Approved Exchanges (Guidelines III.4) with effect from 13 November 2020, adding Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Indonesia Stock Exchange and Warsaw Stock Exchange (Additional Exchanges) to the list of approved stock exchanges for the purpose of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (General) Regulation (Regulation) ...
Private open-ended fund companies (OFCs) can now appoint intermediaries licensed or registered for type 1 (dealing in securities) regulated activities by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) to act as custodians (T1 Intermediary Custodian), aligning custody and prime brokerage arrangements with major overseas fund jurisdictions ...
