Morgan & Morgan opened its first offices in The Bahamas since 1991. We created MMG (Bahamas) Ltd. as a corporate service and later on, in 1996, founded MMG Bank & Trust Ltd., which started our financial unit´s successful path into the financial service industry ...
As we have written in a number of previous articles1, National Treasury, together with the Prudential Authority and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, has recently rolled out various pieces of legislation to bring South Africa closer to compliance with its G20 commitment to regulate over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives in South Africa. Detailed requirements are now being harmonised, including through proposed amendments to existing legislation ...
Over the past year, South Africa has seen some significant changes impacting its commercial financial landscape. On the regulatory front, there has been an overhaul of the financial sector regulatory framework, including the implementation of the “twin peaks” model of regulation, comprising the Prudential Authority and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (“FSCA”) ...
The General Provisions referred to in Article 58 of the Law to Regulate Financial Technology Institutions (“Fintech Law”), Circular 12/2018 addressed to the Electronic Payment Funds, relative to the general provisions applicable to the operations of the Electronic Payment Funds and the General Provisions applicable to the Financial Technology Institutions (“Fintechs”), were published in the Federal Official Gazette (Diario Oficial de la Federación) on Septembe
On September 10, 2018, the Mexican National Banking and Securities Commission (Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valoresor “CNBV”) issued the general provisions applicable to Financial Technology Institutions (“FTIs”) (Disposiciones de Carácter General Aplicables a las Instituciones de Tecnología Financiera) (the “CNBV Provisions”), which, as of March 10, 2018, are regulated by the Law that Regulates Financial Technology Institutions
As we reported in our May 31, 2018 Alert, the California Legislature has been considering legislation to prevent joint powers authority (JPA) member agencies from contracting out of liability for the JPA's pension obligations ...
Following the enactment of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has adopted an amendment to Rule 701(e) increasing the threshold amount of securities that can be sold during a 12-month period from $5 million to $10 million. Securities sold in excess of the threshold trigger enhanced disclosure obligations for the issuer ...
It’s crazy. It’s real. It’s awry. A secretly, stupendously rich man falls in love with a poor girl. His mother declares her a gold-digger. Much gnashing of teeth ensues. Beyond its simple rom-com plot, however, the film Crazy Rich Asians has a less palatable aspect to its story: inequality and our apparent acceptance of it ...
The Internal Revenue Service has released a Private Letter Ruling ("PLR") allowing a plan sponsor to make contributions to employees' 401(k) accounts if the employees are repaying student loans. This is exciting news for employers sponsoring 401(k) plans who hope to attract and retain employees as student loan debt rises to unprecedented levels. The PLR confirmed that some student loan repayment programs linked to 401(k) employer contributions are acceptable ...
Earlier this year, the OJK issued a new regulation on financial digitalinnovation in financial services (“POJK 13/POJK.02/2018”). This is aregulatory sandbox version of the OJK (please see our Advisory on theregulatory sandbox of Bank Indonesia issued in 2017). Definitions According to POJK 13/POJK ...
In the recent budget exercise completed by the Bahamas Government, certain significant changes to the regime for Real Property Tax in The Bahamas were announced and have received a great deal of focus.It is important to take specific advice regarding the annual real property taxes which may be payable in respect of your property, how and when taxes should be paid, and the exemptions (if any) which might be available to you in respect of your property ...
The Israeli Securities Law was amended (Amendment No. 63) with a goal of turning the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) into a more competitive, efficient and profitable stock exchange, by outlining an ownership structure change of the TASE. The ownership structure change allows private investors, in addition to institutional investors, to acquire means of control over the TASE ...
The regulation on the national payment gateway has finally been issued. Bank Indonesia (“BI”), through its regulation No. 19/8/PBI/2017 (“PBI 19/8”) aims to establish national payment system interoperability by implementing switching interconnectivity. The following is a general overview of PBI 19/8 ...
Register your property Online.Registering for an online real property tax account at propertytax.gov.bs is easy, and all that is needed is the property assessment and grid numbers (found on any bill or tax certificate). Once registered, the online account is a convenient way of keeping track of your account. Payment can also be made through the online account, and a tax certificate can be printed directly from the account.Pay the tax by 31st March and enjoy a 10% reduction ...
In order to implement Government Regulation No. 24 of 2018 which introduced an online system for processing and issuing certain business licenses (known as the Online Single Submission “OSS” system), earlier this year, the Investment Coordinating Board (“BKPM”) issued 2 new regulations on investment, ie BKPM Regulation No. 6 of 2018 on the Guidelines and Procedure for Capital Investment Licensing and Facilities (“Regulation 6/2018”) and Regulation No ...
Cooling measures in the form of increased ABSD and tighter LTV limits may be frosting the recent recovery in our property market. Friday July 6:After a few years of drought in the residential property market, the heavens opened a few months back and rained en bloc sales, to the excitement of a market that had been turning frigid from inactivity ...
Two recent cases and a recently-released Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Program Manager Technical Advice Memorandum have sent shockwaves through the voluntary disclosure community. All three developments give offshore account-holders something to cheer. PMTA 2018-13 In previous client alerts, we have discussed the definition of "willfulness" in the context of offshore assets and, more recently, the closing of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) ...
In past years, we have advised clients that as long as no unit in a multi-unit new condominium project is rented before its condominium map is recorded, later sales of units do not fall under the city's condominium conversion ordinance, which does not at this time allow conversion of buildings of more than two units ...
After two years of review, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently announced that it will begin accepting applications for special purpose national bank charters from financial technology (fintech) companies. The OCC’s announcement came hours after the Treasury Department endorsed the approach ...
On 27 July 2018, the newly established Financial Sector Conduct Authority (“FSCA”) published the final Conduct Standard, No 1 of 2018, setting out the Criteria for Authorisation of OTC Derivatives Providers (“ODPs”). The Regulations under the Financial Markets Act, 2012 (the “FMA Regulations”) were promulgated in February of this year, effectively setting a deadline of 8 August 2018 for ODPs to apply for licences ...
This month, courts have been active in several of the fiduciary breach cases involving 403(b) retirement plans at private universities, including USC, Brown, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke and Northwestern. We have been closely monitoring these and other lawsuits against fiduciaries of defined contribution plans, and the lessons to be gleaned for avoiding liability ...
The Croatian Parliament adopted the new Capital Markets Act in order to align the Croatian legislation with the EU acquis. The act adjusts the Croatian legislation with the cornerstone of EU's financial markets regulation - the Directive on Markets in Financial Instruments repealing Directive 2004/39/EC and the Regulation on Markets in Financial Instruments, commonly referred to as MiFID II and MiFIR ...
Earlier this year, the government released a proposal paper: Extending Unfair Contract Terms Protections to Insurance Contracts outlining a model to extend unfair contract term (UCT) provisions to insurance contracts regulated under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) (IC Act) for consultation. The consultation period closes on 27 July. A high level summary of the proposed model is below ...
