As seen in Bank Director Banks should not wait on lawmakers taking action on the myriad of proposed cannabis banking bills to make important strategic decisions about servicing marijuana-related business. It is unclear if any of the proposed cannabis banking bills will gain enough traction and support in Washington to pass through Congress. Despite the inaction, a growing number of financial institutions are choosing to provide banking services to the cannabis industry ...
The Mitigation Fee Act, Government Code section 66000 et seq., authorizes local agencies to impose fees on development projects in order to cover the cost of public facilities needed to serve the developments. However, the local agencies' power to impose mitigation fees is not unlimited: the fees must be reasonably related to the increased burden on public facilities caused by the new development. (Gov. Code § 66000(b); 66001 ...
Overview On 12 February 2019, the Minister of Laws and Human Rights (“MOLHR”) issued Regulation No. 2 of 2019 on The Settlement of Disharmony between Laws and Regulations through Mediation (“MOLHR Reg 2/2019”), which came into effect on 14 February 2019. MOLHR Reg 2/019 replaces the previous regulation on the same subject, MOLHR Regulation No. 32 of 2017 on The Procedure for the Settlement of Disputes over Laws and Regulations through Non-Litigation ...
The Financial Transactions Reporting Act 2018 (FTRA), which was enacted on May 25, 2018, imposed a mandatory requirement on land developers to register with the Compliance Commission (the Commission) ...
At the end of March, UK Visas and Immigration closed both the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) and Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) routes, replacing them with two new visa categories, the ‘Start-up’ and the ‘Innovator’, which are contained within a new Appendix W of the Immigration Rules ...
On 8 April 2019, the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority and Prudential Authority (collectively, the “Authorities”) published yet another draft of the Joint Standard on Margin Requirements for Non-Centrally Cleared OTC Derivatives (the “Margin Requirements”). The last draft had been published in August 2018. Implementation of the Margin Requirements has been delayed numerous times ...
Effective from 12 April 2019, Rwanda has new regulations (the “Regulation on Banks' Major Investments and Placements” and the “Regulation on Banks' Shareholding and M&A”) governing major investments and placements by banks as well as the shareholding and M&A of banks. The new regulations repeal their predecessors, which have been in force for eight years ...
In an increasingly global world, an organisation’s ability to recruit and retain international talent plays an ever important and potentially business critical role. In the UK, the only way in which employers can directly employ many of these talented individuals is through obtaining a sponsor licence from the Home Office ...
On 11 March 2019, the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) issued a joint press release announcing the enactment of legislation enabling the implementation of a “passporting” scheme to facilitate UAE-wide promotion of domestic funds ...
The Brexit referendum vote and its potential impact on free movement has already resulted in many businesses struggling to meet their labour needs; the number of EU migrants has declined markedly at a time when Scotland and the UK is enjoying record levels of employment. As a consequence, immigration has risen to the top of many organisations’ agendas to ensure they can recruit and retain the talent they need to grow their businesses and remain competitive ...
The incorporation of the Law on Security Interests in El Salvador has the objective to create a registry for security interests, that is to say, the inscription of the security interests’ creation, modification, extension, termination and execution, as well as the publicity of these instruments. The Commercial Value that some brands have, plays a very important role and represents, for some entrepreneurs, a mechanism which enables them to access credits ...
The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) Chief Executive, Andrea Coscelli raised concerns in April at “seeing a lot of evidence of anti-competitive conduct in the construction industry”, adding the CMA had “already taken a number of cases in this sector…”. Recent enforcement action from the CMA, outlined below, suggests regulatory intervention is only likely to increase ...
(Article is a transcription of a presentation given by L. Ryan Pinder, Parnter, Graham Thompson Attorneys)IntroductionGood morning and welcome to The Bahamas. I trust you will enjoy your stay in our beautiful country. Today I have been asked to speak on the resilience of Caribbean IFC’s, their ability to adapt and survive amidst the many global initiatives over the past two decades and to explore the multitude of ways in which Caribbean IFCs remain relevant and competitive in this era ...
On April 30, 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Criminal Division issued updated guidance to prosecutors for assessing corporate compliance programs. The new “Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs” (Updated Guidance) replaces the February 2017 Guidance (Prior Guidance) ...
‘Fake news’ - information or news that is proven to be either verifiably false or misleading - has become a major, global concern. As news and opinion pieces are increasingly pushed to readers via online and social media channels, the speed of their dissemination has accelerated exponentially, as have the challenges around regulating news and opinion ...
It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of incredulity. Blazing yellow sun. Lapping blue waves. Tanned beach bods and a palm tree’s silhouette swaying against an orange sky. Once ubiquitous, the California Fitness logo that hints at its fabulous lifestyle offering has vanished from Singapore. In its heyday “Cali”, as its legions of fans called it, was not merely a gym, it was a status symbol ...
Pursuant to Title VII and 42 U.S.C. Chapter 60, a company must annually file an EEO-1 Report with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Joint Reporting Committee (JRC) if it answers “yes” to any of the three jurisdictional questions: 1. A company that has 100 or more employees; 2 ...
Though the legislative session again received a lot of attention from educators this year, there were also bills passed that did not receive as much attention. One of those was Senate Bill 632, which by its terms aims at “improving student safety.” The bill adds two new code sections and amends a third. This education alert provides a basic summary of what those sections require when they take effect July 1, 2019 ...
The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the financial free zone which began operations in 2015, has now come of age. On 14 April 2019 Mr Alexander Guy, Senior Executive Officer and Director at Eshara Capital Limited, had the uncommon honour of becoming the first named person to be fined by ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority. Eshara Capital, in its corporate capacity, was also fined in connection with the same contraventions ...
The Bahamas has passed legislation requiring that certain legal entities carrying on relevant activities have to demonstrate adequate economic substance in said jurisdiction. The beneficial owners of any company or limited partnership incorporated, registered or continued in The Bahamas should be aware of this legislation and consider how they may be affected. The Commercial Entities (Substance Requirements) Act, 2018 (“CESRA”) came into force on December 31st, 2018 ...
The European Union continues to push out new rules aimed at offshore financial centers. Specifically, the Code of Conduct Group (CCG) within the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) Council has determined that jurisdictions that fail to satisfy the CCG’s requirement to end “preferential treatment” for non-resident companies are to be deemed ‘non-cooperative’ and effectively blacklisted ...
FDA Announces Public Meeting for Responsible Innovation in Dietary Supplements Industry Recently, the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it will hold a full-day public meeting to discuss strategies for responsible innovation in the dietary supplement industry. The meeting will be held May 16, 2019, from 8:30 a.m. EST to 4 p.m. EST at the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Wiley Auditorium, located at 5001 Campus Dr., College Park, MD 20740 ...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced new steps it is taking to determine a framework for lawful marketing of appropriate cannabis and cannabis-derived products.[i] As expressed in the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill), the FDA has the authority to regulate products containing cannabis or cannabis-derived compounds ...
1525, the year in which the city of San Salvador was founded under the orders of Pedro de Alvarado, in Las Bermudas Valley, a place located between the city of Suchitoto and the city of San Pedro Perulapan. At this moment, you may probably be thinking “Las Bermudas Valley? That place does not ring a bell to me, I thought that San Salvador was founded where our current historical city center is located.” The answer is both yes and no at the same time ...
