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 ...
Key Points New proposal would allow investment advisors to provide advice to ERISA retirement plan participants for a fee, despite potential conflicts of interest. Reinstates five-part test from 1975 for determining when an investment advisor provides investment advice as a fiduciary to a plan participant. The U.S ...
The Federal Reserve has announced that the Main Street Lending Program will now be available to non-profits such as educational institutions, hospitals, and social service organizations, and has issued a set of Frequently Asked Questions regarding the new Nonprofit Organization New Loan Facility and Nonprofit Organization Expanded Loan Facility ...
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, local municipalities and state governments throughout the country have implemented stay-at-home orders and mandated closures of businesses and restaurants to lower the spread of the disease. California, after having permitted much of the state to reopen businesses, has seen a recent spike in COVID-19 cases and on July 13th implemented a new statewide order to curb the increase, reimposing certain business closures ...
Key Points Participants in defined contribution retirement plans, such as 401(k), 401(a), 403(b), or governmental 457(b) plans, can skip their required minimum distribution (RMD) payments for 2020. If RMDs for 2020 have already been received, participants have until August 31, 2020 to rollover the RMD into an eligible retirement plan ...
Unfortunately, financial exploitation is a significant and growing area of concern, particularly with elderly investors or those with diminished capacity. Investment advisers are facing a client base who is increasingly older, and with that comes the increased likelihood of an investment adviser encountering possible financial exploitation ...
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 ...
On July 15, 2020, the Kentucky Community Property Trust Act (the “Act”; codified at KRS 386.620 et seq.) became effective, instituting an elective community property regime under Kentucky law. The intent of the Act is to permit spouses to receive a stepped-up basis for federal income tax purposes at the death of the first spouse in 100 percent of the property they have elected to treat as community property ...
Key Points On July 17, 2020, the Federal Reserve announced two new loan options under the Main Street Lending Program to support nonprofit organizations: the Nonprofit Organization New Loan Facility ("NONLF") and the Nonprofit Organization Expanded Loan Facility ("NOELF") ...
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 ...
The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (the "CEWS") Is a key component of the Government of Canada's COVID-19 economic response plan. The purpose of the CEWS, adopted on April 11, 2020, is to help Canadians keep their jobs during the crisis and help companies maintain an employment relationship with their employees in order to recover more quickly when the economy returns to normal ...
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 ...
The Limited Partnership Fund Bill which provides for registration of eligible funds as limited partnership funds (LPFs) in Hong Kong passed the third reading at the Legislative Council on 9 July 2020. The Limited Partnership Fund Ordinance (LPFO) will come into operation on 31 August 2020 ...
On 24 June 2020, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published its latest Annual Report, covering the 12-month period to 31 March 2020. As in previous years, the report provides a useful summary of what the SFC has done over the past year particularly in terms of achieving its publicly stated goals and providing insight into its priorities moving forward ...
On 26 June 2020, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a circular publishing in draft new versions of the financial return forms for SFC licensed corporations (LCs). The SFC is planning to revise the existing forms in order to collect additional data from LCs to “enable the SFC to identify risks in a timely manner, take prompt supervisory action and protect investors”. It is expected that the forms will be gazetted without significant amendment ...
On 29 June 2020, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), and the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) jointly published an announcement on the launch of the cross-boundary wealth management connect pilot scheme (Wealth Management Connect) in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) (the announcement is available here in English and here in Chinese) ...
On July 20, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed a rule which, if finalized as a rule, would establish a new standard for when a national bank or Federal savings association (“bank”) is the “true lender” in a lending arrangement with a third party. Under the proposed rule, the bank is the lender in a loan transaction if either (1) the bank is the named lender in the loan documents at origination, or (2) the bank funds the loan at origination ...
On July 7, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its final rule, the 2017 Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans Rule (Small Dollar Rule), which rescinded the ability to repay and underwriting provisions. The final rule does not, however, rescind or alter the payment provisions in the Small Dollar Rule, and the CFPB indicated that it would be moving forward with those provisions ...
In Japan, the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI) is the primary law that regulates data protection issues ...
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 ...
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 ...
After filing Form CRS ahead of the June 30 2020 deadline, many investment advisers breathed a sigh of relief. However, advisers must remain vigilant as the June 30 deadline was the beginning of a new set of compliance efforts which firms must meet on a going-forward basis. In an effort to keep firms on track, we have summarized these ongoing obligations. 1) Initial Delivery ...
On June 23, 2020, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) issued a Risk Alert focused on assisting private fund advisers in reviewing and enhancing their compliance programs, as well as providing information to investors regarding potential private fund adviser deficiencies ...
On July 15, 2020, the Federal Reserve published a number of changes to the Main Street Lending Program’s frequently asked questions, which FAQs were amended to provide further guidance on a number of issues. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston MSLP web page has links to clean and redline versions of the new FAQs: https://www.bostonfed.org/supervision-and-regulation/supervision/special-facilities/main-street-lending-program/information-for-lenders/docs ...
