The government’s recently announced low-carbon industrial sector strategy, supported by over £1 billion in funding to cut emissions from industry and public buildings, if nothing else, shows great ambition but does it also deliver the wherewithal to achieve those objectives? It builds on the proposals in the Energy White Paper which themselves expanded upon the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution announced by Prime Minister in November last year ...
On March 18, 2021, the Financial Market Commission (“FMC”) opened a public consultation process regarding 2 regulations: Amendment to the files that configure the report of financial system debtors The proposed regulatory changes, applicable to banks, supervised cooperatives and bank support companies (sociedades de apoyo al giro), aim to reduce the frequency of the delivery of the files D10 (Information on debtors article 14 LGB (General Banking Act)) and D27 (Obligations
On 19 March 2021, the Hong Kong Government gazetted the Securities and Futures and Companies Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2021 (the Bill). The Bill provides for an uncertificated securities market (USM) regime which will allow investors to hold securities in their own names without paper documents ...
An increasing number of investment managers in Hong Kong are considering the adoption of the open-ended fund company (OFC) structure following announcements by the government of subsidy initiatives to cover 70% of expenses paid to local professional service providers for the establishment of OFCs and the re-domiciliation of funds as OFCs. As a key operator of an OFC, the investment manager should be well informed of its obligations and duties under the OFC regime ...
The European Union’s (EU’s) Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) imposes disclosure obligations on fund managers and other EU regulated firms regarding environment, social or governance (ESG) issues. The SFDR disclosure obligations came into effect on 10 March 2021. I was recently approached by Ignites Asia – a Financial Times service – for an interview on how the SFDR may impact Hong Kong fund managers. Below is an extract. 1 ...
A recent Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) disciplinary action is a reminder of the need for managers to ensure there are systems and procedures in place to meet the short position reporting obligations of the funds that they manage. The SFC reprimanded and fined an asset manager HK$3 ...
There has been a growing expectation that in order to fill the COVID sized hole in the Treasury's finances focus and ultimately action would be brought to bear on pension tax relief across defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes. However, "Tax Day" has seen cuts to higher rate tax relief fail to materialise ...
On March 16, 2021, Decree No. 64 / 2020 of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, was published in the Official Gazette, approving the Regulation that establishes conditions for the treatment and final disposal of wastes from aquaculture activities (the "Regulation") ...
In EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a critical interpretation of prior guidance that extended certain deadlines for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries due to COVID-19. We discussed the original guidance in this prior article ...
In February 2020, just prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 (Subchapter V) took effect.[1] Subchapter V amends Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code to allow certain individuals and businesses with debts of less than $2,725,625 to file a streamlined Chapter 11 case with the goal to make small business bankruptcies faster and cheaper ...
Over the past month, the SEC has signaled the primacy of ESG in its mission for 2021 and beyond. Seemingly daily, there have been updates regarding ESG initiatives, whether from the Division of Enforcement or the Division of Corporation Finance. This week, it was the Division of Investment Management’s turn ...
Republic Act No. 11523, also known as “An Act Ensuring Philippine Financial Industry Resiliency Against the COVID-19 Pandemic” (FIST Act)1, which seeks to assist banks and financial institutions (FIs) in dealing with the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, took effect on February 18, 2021 upon its publication in the Official Gazette and in a newspaper of general circulation ...
Recently, we have seen a flurry of congressional and executive activity on the issue of nondiscrimination in banking. In October 2020, Senators Warren and Booker, along with other Democratic senators, introduced the Fair Access to Financial Services Act of 2020. This bill seeks to prevent discrimination in banking based on “race, color, religion, national origin, and sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity) ...
This digest is a curated list of Bradley content regarding the coronavirus. In an effort to provide our clients with the easiest way to find information that may be beneficial in responding to the impact of COVID-19, we have provided links to our most recent blog posts, news alerts, webinar recordings and more. Additionally, this digest will now be deployed on a weekly basis in an effort to reduce the number of emails our clients receive ...
On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”) which is another coronavirus stimulus package aimed at speeding up the United States’ recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ...
As we mentioned last week, the signals coming from the SEC on ESG matters are increasing in volume and significance. On March 15, acting SEC Chair Allison Herren Lee added two more data points. The first concerned the Division of Corporate Finance’s disclosure program ...
The Insurance Authority has recently gazetted the Insurance (Group Capital) Rules. They will come into effect on 29th March, the same day as the Insurance (Amendment) (No. 2) Ordinance which makes provision for the Insurance Authority to supervise on a consolidated basis designated insurance holding companies and members of their supervised group (see our Client Alert dated 27th May, 2020 regarding designated insurance holding companies) ...
On March 11th, 2021, the National Consumer Service (hereinafter “ SERNAC ”) published a new interpretative circular which sets rules for the notification of breaches regarding financial portability and other monitoring data (the “ Circular ”). The Circular revokes SERNAC's Exempt Resolution No ...
On 11 March 2021, the Information Regulator published an invitation to apply for prior authorisation, together with a Guidance Note, on the application for prior authorisation and the form to be used by responsible parties in obtaining such prior authorisation. The invitation to apply for prior authorisation encourages responsible parties to submit their applications as soon as possible ...
Introduction: On February 7, 2021, the State Council Anti-monopoly Commission (the “Commission”) promulgated the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Platform Economy (the “Guidelines”), following only three months after the State Administration for Market Regulation (“SAMR”) issued an exposure draft of the same on November 10, 2020 (the “Exposure Draft”), which unveiled a more rigorous approach to anti-monopoly regulation ...
Asset tokenisation is poised to tear down the high barriers to luxury investments. Imagine you are a whisky aficionado. Having witnessed rare Scotch trounce many investments over the past 10 years, you are eager to jump on the bandwagon. It is, after all, a complementary way to fund an expensive hobby; according to industry watcher Rare Whisky 101’s Rare Whisky Icon 100 Index, UK auction prices of 100 iconic collectors’ bottles have almost quadrupled since 2012 ...
The SEC Division of Examinations issued a Risk Alert on Feb. 26, 2021, providing the Division’s observations made during examinations of investment advisers, broker-dealers and transfer agents regarding digital asset securities. For purposes of the Division, digital asset securities are those digital assets that are securities ...
Corporate & Commercial Recognition of UK Insolvency Proceedings in Malta Post-BrexitSimon Pullicino comments on the impact of Brexit with respect to cross-border insolvency and the implications for the recognition and enforcement of UK proceedings in Malta and vice-versa ...
For those of us in the HUD-insured multifamily finance space who make our living trying to shrink the time period between firm commitment and closing, Chapter 19 of the new Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) Guide was a must-read when it was published at the end of 2020 ...
On 08 March 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commissions (“SEC”) released SEC Memorandum Circular (“MC”) No. 3, series of 2021 to promulgate and provide guidelines on the filing of the audited financial statements (“AFS”), general information sheet (“GIS”), and other annual reports for the year 2021. In the said MC, the SEC announced the mandatory submission of these reports through the SEC’s Online Submission Tool (“OST”) ...
