Virtual currencies are once again at the forefront of discussion about top issues facing community banks and the financial industry as a whole. The Independent Community Bankers of America (“ICBA”), a trade association representing more than 6,500 community banks, recently published its list of top issues for the fourth quarter of 2015. Among them were the risks associated with virtual currencies ...
On September 9, 2015, the Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced a transformation of the way the Department of State’s visa bulletin functions. This change will allow many individuals who have been waiting in visa backlogs to file green card applications before an actual green card is available ...
On 3 October, the European Commission fined Visa €10.2 million (approximately £7 million) for its refusal to admit Morgan Stanley Bank International Limited of the UK as a member of the Visa network. The fine is to be seen in the context of continuing regulatory scrutiny of the financial sector, and the banking sector in particular, at both the EU and UK level ...
British businesses have long relied on temporary labour from the European Union to service short or medium-term projects. From an immigration perspective, prior to Brexit this relationship used to be frictionless. There was no red tape and no need to worry about what was or was not permitted under the UK’s immigration rules and policies. People arrived, people worked, people left and businesses were happy ...
On the 1st June 2009, the major parts of the Insolvency Act 2009 (“the Act”) came into operation. The Act has completely revamped the insolvency regime in Mauritius and new provisions now govern “voidable transactions” following a company liquidation. The “ordinary course of business” test, which was prevailing under the former regime, has now been abandoned and replaced by what is known as the “running account principle” ...
Internet telephones are set to take the global communications industry by storm. Big names like Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo! and eBay are piling into the market and former state-run telecoms providers like BT are also investing. The technology was first developed by the US Defense Department as part of a research project on interconnection in the 1970s. But until recently only techno-geeks have had the interest and ability to make any use of it. But times have changed ...
Solicitor and commercial specialist Ross Woodham takes a technical and commercial look at Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), as it grows in popularity. VoIP has existed since the early 1980’s, but was only given serious commercial attention in the late 1990’s, since when the use of VoIP-based technology has grown steadily ...
On April 8, 2020, the federal government adopted draft wording presented by the Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection for a draft bill to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in event contract law in order to protect organizers of recreational events and operators of recreational facilities from considerable outflows of liquidity ...
On March 29, in a development that provides some measure of relief to businesses operating in West Virginia, particularly within the financial services industry, Gov. Jim Justice signed into law amendments to the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act, or WVCCPA ...
On March 29, in a development that provides some measure of relief to businesses operating in West Virginia, particularly within the financial services industry, Gov. Jim Justice signed into law amendments to the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act, or WVCCPA ...
Employers nationwide are grappling with the new normal to balance how, where, and when their employees will work with the interests of employee health and safety and ever-tightening government mandates to self-quarantine. Below are some FLSA reminders and typical issues we are fielding from clients across many industries. Some of my employees are self-quarantined and working from home ...
According to Panamanian law, all employees must have an employment contract with some mandatory content which cannot be replaced by a job offer. Salary and working hours, must be agreed in this employment contract. The salary could be paid by month, fortnight, week, day or hour, but the practice is to negotiate a monthly salary, which must be at least equal to the minimum wage established by law ...
This Article was originally published in Issue 7.5 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. Companies around the globe are having to make urgent decisions to keep their employees safe and ensure business continuity in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak. In order to fulfil these goals, companies need to find the right balance between providing a safe working environment and respecting their employees’ privacy, which can prove to be quite difficult in practice ...
All eyes are on the U.S. Federal Reserve as it attempts what many are calling a tightrope walk: raising interest rates just enough to slow the economy without triggering a recession in the hope of achieving an economic soft landing. With the Fed doing everything in its power to make borrowing costlier, factors are facing a similar balancing act ...
Crowdfunding has many faces. Charitable organisations have received support through this route, as have travelers, athletes, scientists and inventors, and the creators of such humble concepts as making potato salad—a project to which the public contributed over USD 55,000. But often crowdfunding is the main source of financing for innovative ideas which in the long run can drive economic development and positive social changes ...
The recent dynamic growth of virtual currencies presents the increasingly realistic chance of creation of an entirely new model of money and payment. Innovations allowing payments to be made at lightning speed, across state borders and outside of official payment systems, are appearing before our very eyes. Such payments are made without the involvement of banks or intermediaries, and often anonymously. This is a revolution not only for traditional payment systems, but also for the law ...
A summary of the decision in Allay (UK) Limited v S Gehlen and a reminder to employers to keep equal opportunities training up to date to be able to rely on the all reasonable steps defence under s 109 (4) of the Equality Act 2010. It is common for employers to provide employees with equal opportunities training, to underpin workplace culture as well as to prevent discrimination from taking place. A recent case, however, provides a salutary reminder to keep such training up to date ...
Stuttgart Labor Court, April 30, 2019 – 4 BV 251/18 Warnings by which employers are reprimanding the exercise of office by works council members and threatening sanctions in accordance with Section 23 Works Constitution Act (warnings under works constitution law) may not be entered in the personnel files of works council members irrespective of their lawfulness ...
This article considers whether a notice is valid when served on a party who is specified in the Contract, but no longer holds office and lacks authority to act ...
According to the recent insurance broker's Transactional Risk Insurance Claims Study1, the number of W&I claims have increased by 293% between 2016 and 2018 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (the EMEA-region). One explanation is of course the triple increase W&I policies issued over the same period. The W&I market have become more mature than what it was just some few years back ...
