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 ...
Over a year ago, Congress amended the Bankruptcy Code to create Subchapter V, with the intent of encouraging small businesses (defined as those with less than $2,725,625.00 in debt) to file reorganization plans more often by saving certain costs of a routine Chapter 11. Congress then passed the CARES Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, raising the debt limit to $7,500,000.00 ...
Amendments to the Corporate Income Tax Act which went into effect on 1 January 2014 provide an opportunity to revive the practice of subparticipation in lending in Poland. Regulations governing subparticipation have been in force since 2004. For tax reasons, however, subparticipation has remained much less popular in Poland than assignment of receivables, despite certain other advantages, particularly the greater ease of selling participation in loans backed by mortgages ...
Financial services companies, such as banks, credit unions, lenders, finance companies, loan servicers, broker-dealers, and securities firms, often receive subpoenas from parties in litigation involving their customers, employees, and business partners. They may also receive subpoenas from regulatory organizations, government agencies, and grand juries ...
The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement has effectively brought an end to state aid and a new regime of subsidy control has come into effect ...
On June 17, 2009, the Obama administration issued a "white paper" which proposes a sweeping reorganization of financial-market supervision. The plan would touch almost every corner of banking from how mortgages are underwritten to the way exotic financial instruments are traded. The plan will undoubtedly be modified during the Legislative process. Banks in other countries have already objected to the proposed international effects ...
Simonsen Vogt Wiig has lately experienced an exceptional increase in new transactions within the offshore supply market. The traditional corporate lending, real estate and shipping markets have also stayed strong with a high volume of transactions with both banks and an increasing number of alternative project-based funding sources ...
The Superintendence of Finance issued resolution 368 of 2020 in which it adopted special measures for the attention of the public and the provision of services by this entity. Through this regulation, the SFC ordered the resumption of terms of all the administrative actions carried out by the SFC, as of April 2, 2020 ...
Panama, 24 July 2020. By means of Rule JD-01-2020, published in the Official Gazette No. 29076 of 24 July 2020, the Superintendence of Non-Financial Regulated Persons (SNFR) has established a set of rules and obligations imposed to attorneys and accountants whenever they incur in any of the regulated activities under Law 23 of 2015, which relates to prevention of money laundering, financing of arms of mass destruction and financing of terrorism ...
On April 20, 2012, Justice Mongeon of the Quebec Superior Court rendered an important decision in the restructuring of the White Birch Paper Company ("White Birch")1. The judgment could have a lasting effect on CCAA Jurisprudence in Quebec since it deals with issues relating to the pension plans of insolvent companies and the applicability of an important decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Quebec ...
The use of social media, discussion forums and other websites for business purposes, as a means of communicating with the public, raises increasingly significant compliance issues for regulated entities of the financial sector. Such use may expose registered or certified representatives and, consequently, their firms, to previously unheard of but nonetheless real non compliance and reputational risks ...
Law 58/2020 of 31 August implements into Portuguese law Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing. It enshrines in the Portuguese legal framework a first approach to the regulation of entities that engage in activities with virtual assets ...
In coordination with the EU Commission, the federal government has launched numerous support measures and state aid in the form of grants, loans, and guarantees with facilitated conditions in a short period of time. For this purpose, the federal government mainly used already existing funding programs. An explanatory article on the support measures and state aid provided by the federal government can be found here ...
The Supreme Court has considered the Westwalk case and ruled that foreign companies can be legally recognized as bankrupt if there is a "close connection" with Russia. Bankruptcy of foreigners was first commenced in 2016, but for a long was applied only to individuals1. The Arbitrazh Court of the Chelyabinsk Region opened Pandora's box in 2022 with respect to a company from the island of Nevis, which was only formally registered there ...
The cap may no longer fit - In a welcome and well-reasoned decision from the Supreme Court in the case of Manchester Building Society -v- Grant Thornton, the scope of duty and extent of liability of professional advisers has been comprehensively reviewed and clarity provided. The Manchester Building Society (“MBS”) claim related to a claim against Grant Thornton (“GT”) regarding auditing and accounting advice it provided ...
A recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States may make it easier for borrowers to claim discrimination when denied a loan. In late June 2015, the Court addressed whether lawsuits brought under the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”)[1] required a plaintiff to show that the defendant intentionally discriminated against him or her. The Court held that the FHA does not require that ...
The Supreme Court this past week denied certiorari in United States ex rel. Schneider v. J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., an appeal from a D.C. Circuit case affirming the district court’s dismissal of a qui tam FCA action. See No. 19-678, 2020 U.S. LEXIS 2079 (Apr. 6, 2020). In so doing, the Court declined to address the emerging circuit split over the extent of the government’s dismissal power in qui tam cases ...
On February 27, 2018, the Supreme Court resolved a split between the Second, Third, Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuit, and the Seventh and Eleventh Circuit in its ruling inMerit Management Group, L.P. v. FTI Consulting, Inc. (“Merit Management”)583 U. S. ____ (U.S. Feb. 27, 2018) ...
Activists and government leaders are sounding the death knell for our planet unless something is done about climate change. But while sustainability is important, sustainability reporting may not be the answer. In a headline-hogging speech at the UN last month, 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg berated politicians and business people for doing too little to arrest climate change, ruining the globe for future generations. High-profile scandals back up her claim ...
The 50th Earth Day has passed this year under the shadow of a global pandemic, where the immediacy of human health has eclipsed, for now, the focus on the long-term health of the planet and humanity’s place within it that had begun to preoccupy businesses and investors. From a corporate governance perspective, that is reasonable, as risks to short-term survival take precedence over the long-term planning and risk mitigation demanded by more epochal trends like climate change ...
Mamo TCV Advocates shall be organising a series of webinars spanning over one week to provide insights on sustainable finance and related regulatory compliance obligations. The scope of these webinars is to highlight how the sustainability-related requirements are impacting the financial services sector from a regulatory standpoint. During the week, Mamo TCV Advocates will also be discussing employment and corporate social responsibility matters ...
Registrations for the Mamo TCV Advocates Sustainable Finance Week being held between the 24th and 28th October 2022 are now open. Please click here for the programme of events ...
The Guernsey Financial Services Commission (“GFSC”) has published its Guidance for CIS on measures to counter the risk of greenwashing (“Guidance”) which applies to all collective investment schemes which are authorised or registered under the Protection of Investors (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law, 2020 and to those responsible for preparing the prospectuses and other marketing materials of such schemes ...