In the recently-passed Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”), Congress provided much-needed cover for landlords that enter into forbearance agreements with their tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic by protecting landlords from exposure to preference litigation arising out of the deferred rent payments if the tenant were to later file bankruptcy ...
On December 28, 2020, New York passed a new law entitled the “COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020.” The act places a moratorium on COVID-19-related residential real property mortgage foreclosure actions and residential eviction proceedings until May 1, 2021, where a tenant or homeowner has submitted a “hardship declaration” to the foreclosing party, landlord, and/or the court ...
The March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) contains a number of provisions that help borrowers with federally backed mortgage loans. Among these are forbearance protections for borrowers with single-family loans and multifamily loans. However, only one of the forbearance provisions has a clearly defined period when the rights are available ...
The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act, recently passed as part of the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,” has significantly extended the tax exclusions for employer-paid student loan repayment assistance introduced under the CARES Act. With this extension, employers can provide employees with student loan repayment assistance of up to $5,250 per year for 2021 through 2025 (up to $26,250 total) ...
Effective February 23, 2021, the 2016 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys are being replaced with the new 2021 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys (“2021 Standards”). The 2021 Standards include a variety of changes which seek to further limit surveyor’s liability and provide better clarity ...
In this article, Goh Hui Wen examines the proposed regulatory framework for digital banks in Malaysia. INTRODUCTION The global financial services industry has seen a momentous evolution over the past decades driven by new technology innovations. As customers gravitate towards digital experiences and products, the transformation of the traditional banking system has become inevitable ...
December 23, 2020 the Luxembourg legislator has published the law of 19 December 2020 implementing financial restrictive measures (“law of 19 December 2020”). This law has repealed the law of 27 October 2010 enhancing the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing legal framework ...
The FCA has published details of the financial penalties imposed during 2020 showing a significant fall on previous years in the number of penalties imposed and aggregate value. It also calls for greater resources to help tackle frauds and scams. In 2020 the FCA imposed 11 fines totalling £192,570,018. Despite the number of fines reducing significantly there was still a range in the issues which resulted in penalties being imposed ...
What Happened: OFAC settled with BitGo, Inc. for $98,830, resolving 183 apparent violations of multiple US sanctions programs for processing digital currency transactions on behalf of individuals located in sanctioned jurisdictions ...
At Christmas, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) consisting of 1256 pages was finally agreed between the EU and the UK. Crucially, the Agreement is between the EU and UK only and not the EU and its member states and the UK. The TCA establishes a free trade area for goods and services, in accordance with the WTO law. Both sides can apply trade remedies as is usual for free trade agreements such as on condition anti-dumping duties, anti-subsidy duties, and economic safeguards ...
Key Points Past and future PPP loan recipients can deduct PPP loan-funded eligible expenses for federal tax purposes even if the loan is forgiven. Expanded eligibility for new loans to include new categories of employers; existing borrowers who have not yet received loan forgiveness may increase loan amount based on expanded allowable expenses ...
At Christmas, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) consisting of 1256 pages was finally agreed between the EU and the UK. Crucially, the Agreement is between the EU and UK only and not the EU and its member states and the UK. The TCA establishes a free trade area for goods and services, in accordance with the WTO law. Both sides can apply trade remedies as is usual for free trade agreements such as on condition anti-dumping duties, anti-subsidy duties, and economic safeguards ...
On Dec. 16, 2020, OCIE issued a new Risk Alert focused on the compliance efforts of investment advisers and broker-dealers regarding Rule 13h-1 (the Rule). The Rule was enacted in order to help the SEC identify market participants that conduct significant amounts of trading activity in national market system (NMS) securities. Generally, NMS securities are exchange-listed equity securities and standardized options ...
On Jan. 19, 2021, the two recent final rules issued by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding changes to the Physician-Self Referral Law (Stark Law) and the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) regulations (respectively the OIG Final Rule and the CMS Rule, collectively the Final Rules) will become effective ...
After a hectic first quarter, the focus shifted dramatically after the lockdown in mid-March. Within a few days, we went from negotiating new financings within most industries to assisting our clients with urgent waivers and liquidity loans. After the initial chaotic period, we have, however, seen a more normalized period with considerable activity where strong companies and good projects have been able to obtain new financings on acceptable terms ...
If anyone had told you that 2020 would be a year in which you are virtually guaranteed a lie-flat bed in economy class, businesses instructed employees not to come into the office, and budget supermarket Sheng Siong’s shares outperformed bank blue chip DBS’s, you would have sent the chap to have his head checked.But as the new coronavirus spread worldwide, the ensuing Covid-19 pandemic forced billions into lockdown ...
On December 27, 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) and the Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) issued two revised versions of negative lists (collectively the “2021 Foreign Investment Negative Lists”), which came into effect on January 1, 2022: Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment Access (2021 Edition) (the “2021 National Negative List”) ...
The recently enacted COVID-19 Related Tax Relief Act of 2020 and the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, both of which are part of the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,” includes the following provisions that expand and extend changes intended to provide relief to retirement plan sponsors and participants affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters ...
On January 4, 2021, law No. 21, 299, which allows the postponement of mortgage loans installments and sets a state guaranty to guarantee the so postponed installments was published in the Official Gazette (the “New Law”) ...
On New Year’s Day 2021, Congress passed—over President Trump’s veto—a defense appropriations law containing the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (“AML Act”) and the Corporate Transparency Act, as part of a sweeping new set of anti-money laundering reforms that create important new beneficial ownership disclosure obligations for a wide range of small companies, and contain both good and bad news for financial institutions ...
FINANCIAL SERVICES BURSA MALAYSIA SECURITIES EXPANDS MARKET MAKING FRAMEWORK Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (“Bursa”) has, via Participating Organisations’ Circular No. R/R 13 of 2020 issued on 24 November 2020, made amendments to the rules and directives of Bursa in relation to the expansion of the market making framework ...
Decree-Law 106/2020 of 23 December (the “TPR Law”), which was published on 23 December, sets out a Temporary Permissions Regime (the “Portuguese TPR”) for UK entities that provide financial services in Portugal under the freedom to provide services or freedom of establishment as provided for in the applicable EU legislation (the “EU Passport”) ...
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 ...
Key Points In a rare move, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals published two opinions about subjects that are hardly ever discussed in the court's published National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) decisions. For the first time in more than three decades, the court examined impacts to an old-growth redwood forest, and for the first time since 2016, the court examined indirect (downstream) carbon emissions. In Bair v ...
