Resurrecting the Office of Financial Research

By Hilary J. Allen November 30, 2020 by renholding

The Office of Financial Research (“OFR”) was created by the Dodd-Frank Act to help address the gaps in data availability and analysis that had hampered governmental authorities in their response to the financial crisis of 2008. It was hoped that …

Simpson Thacher Discusses UK Bill to Reform Review Process for Foreign Direct Investment

By David Vann, Ben Spiers and Mick Tuesley November 30, 2020 by renholding

On November 11, 2020, the Parliament of the United Kingdom (“U.K.”) introduced the National Security and Investment Bill of 2020 (the “NSI Bill”) to modernize the U.K.’s foreign direct investment (“FDI”) screening process and strengthen its ability to investigate and …

Debunking Fintech Inside and Outside the Blockchain

By Fatjon Kaja, Edoardo Martino and Alessio M. Pacces November 27, 2020 by renholding

The hype over technology-enabled disintermediation of financial services, commonly known as fintech, seems at a peak. Though fintech firms promise to increase competition in the financial industry, it is unclear how much the various forms of fintech, including those working …

Is Stakeholder Value an Excuse for Underperfoming Managers?

By Ryan Flugum and Matthew E. Souther November 25, 2020 by renholding

In August 2019, the Business Roundtable released a statement redefining the purpose of a corporation to maximize value “for the benefit of all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders.” The statement was signed by 181 CEOs, including Jamie …

Financial Regulators Offer Update on Audit Quality in Emerging Markets

By Jay Clayton, Sagar Teotia and William D. Duhnke III November 25, 2020 by renholding

Over the past several years, the exposure of U.S. investors and our capital markets to companies with significant operations in emerging markets, including China, has increased.[1] This increased exposure carries with it a number of significant risks and challenges,

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Crypto-Enforcement Around the World

By Douglas S. Eakeley and Yuliya Guseva November 24, 2020 by renholding

The market for cryptoassets is burgeoning, as distributed ledger technology transforms capital and financial markets. With the extraordinary growth in the crypto-markets comes the need for regulation to promote efficiency, capital formation, and innovation while protecting investors. With the need …

Cleary Gottlieb Discusses UK Supreme Court Decision on Law Governing Arbitration Agreement

By Andrés de la Cruz, Juan G. Giráldez, Carmine D. Boccuzzi, Jr., Jared Gerber and Manuel Silva November 24, 2020 by snehapandya

In an important decision for arbitration users, the U.K. Supreme Court has clarified how English law will determine the governing law of an arbitration agreement which provides for an English seat in the absence of an express choice of law. …

Enforcement Against the Biggest Banks

By David Zaring November 23, 2020 by renholding

My article, Enforcement Against the Biggest Banks, takes a census of the hundreds of enforcement actions by American regulators against the world’s largest banks between the passage of Dodd-Frank in July 2010 and December 31, 2016, near the end …

Latham & Watkins Discusses Department of Labor Rule on ESG Investing

By Paul A. Davies, Nicola Higgs, Kristina S. Wyatt and Deric Behar November 23, 2020 by Nisha Chandra

On October 30, 2020, the US Department of Labor (DOL) published Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investments (the Rule) and a related Fact Sheet, a codification of the spirit, if not the exact words, of a controversial proposal issued …

Mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility Legislation Around the World

By Li-Wen Lin November 20, 2020 by renholding

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is typically assumed to be a voluntary rather than mandatory initiative. Yet, over the past few decades, a growing number of countries have adopted laws that explicitly require corporations to undertake CSR.

To date, most scholarly …

Chairman Clayton Speaks on Putting Principles into Practice: the SEC from 2017-2020

By Jay Clayton November 20, 2020 by renholding

It is wonderful to be back with the Economic Club of New York. You are a sophisticated, experienced, outcome-oriented, tough and fair audience, interested in economic and wage growth and improving our society more generally. Just the way it should

…

Fintech and International Financial Regulation

By Yesha Yadav November 19, 2020 by renholding

In the weeks leading up to Ant Financial’s ill-fated IPO, Jack Ma criticized the system of international banking regulation in remarks at the Bund Summit in Shanghai. The Alibaba co-founder contended that the current framework was a poor match for …

Cleary Gottlieb Discusses Case on Collective Action Clauses in Sovereign Debt Restructuring

By Rathna Ramamurthi, Antonio Pietrantoni, Manuel Silva, Carmine Boccuzzi and Andrés de la Cruz November 19, 2020 by snehapandya

On July 31, 2020, Judge Caproni in the Southern District of New York denied an emergency motion filed by certain bondholders for a temporary restraining order that would have halted efforts by the Republic of Ecuador (“Ecuador”) to restructure $17.4 …

Initial Public Offerings Chinese Style

By Yiming Qian, Jay R. Ritter and Xinjian Shao November 18, 2020 by renholding

The forced postponement of Ant Group’s initial public offering (IPO), the largest ever, by the Chinese government is the latest example of the heavy-handed regulatory approach that has made it extremely costly for companies to go public in China. The …

Corporations, Directors’ Duties, and the Public/Private Divide

By Jennifer G. Hill November 17, 2020 by renholding

Business history and theory reflect a tension between public and private conceptions of the corporation. This tension and conceptual ambiguity lay close to the surface of The Modern Corporation and Private Property, in which Berle and Means portrayed the …

Goodwin Procter Discusses Shareholder Suits to Increase Board Diversity

By Alexis Coll-Very, Deborah S. Birnbach and Jade T. White November 17, 2020 by Nisha Chandra

A lot of attention has been paid to board diversity – or lack thereof – in recent months. California enacted AB-979, which expanded upon California’s earlier gender diversity law and requires boards to make strides in other types of diversity, …

The European Commission Considers “Short-Termism” (and “What Do You Mean by That?”)

By John C. Coffee, Jr. November 16, 2020 by renholding

The European Commission retained Ernst & Young (“EY”) to undertake a detailed study of “short-termism” and, implicitly, to report whether it was a major roadblock to more sustainable corporate governance. Their study was then presented at a three day international …

Latham & Watkins Discusses IBOR Fallbacks Protocol and Supplement from ISDA

By Yvette D. Valdez, Becky Critchley, Adam Bruce Fovent, J. Ashley Weeks, Deric Behar and Anna Lewis-Martinez November 16, 2020 by renholding

On October 23, 2020, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) published its IBOR Fallbacks Protocol (Protocol) and Supplement to the 2006 ISDA Definitions (Supplement) in anticipation of the expected discontinuation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) at …

How Corporate Social Responsibility Affects Product Market Perception and Firm Value

By Katsiaryna Salavei Bardos, Mine Ertugrul and Lucia Silva Gao November 13, 2020 by renholding

The prominence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been growing in recent years, but the empirical relationship between CSR and firm value is still inconclusive. Though many studies show a positive impact of CSR on firm value, others provide evidence …

Kirkland & Ellis Discusses New EU Foreign Direct Investment Regulations

By Michael Casey, Marcus Thompson and Thomas Wilson November 13, 2020 by Nisha Chandra

The European Union has recently taken a significant step in regulating foreign direct investment (“FDI”). As of October 11, 2020 a new EU regulation related to inbound foreign investment (the “FDI Regulation[1]”) became binding on all 27 Member …

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The CLS Blue Sky Blog

Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets

November 2020