Sky Blog
On July 31, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in New York decided a case with significant implications for how and even whether the Securities and Exchange Commission can regulate cryptocurrencies as a security. His decision contrasts sharply with a ruling …
On July 26, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division (“NSD”), the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”), and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) issued a Tri-Seal …
Sign up for an investment account, and you will likely be presented with a dizzying range of investment products. The industry caters to investors with different risk appetites, savings pots, time horizons, ESG outlooks, religious commitments, and more. In some …
High CEO pay in the United States has fueled repeated calls for enhanced disclosure of chief executives’ compensation. For example, in 2015 the SEC received over 285,000 comment letters supporting its proposed rule to require disclosure of CEO-employee pay ratios. …
On July 27, 2023, US federal banking regulators issued proposals to (i) significantly revise the risk-based regulatory capital requirements for certain midsize and larger US banking organizations (the “Capital Proposal”), and (ii) change the method for calculating the capital surcharge …
In a new paper, we examine the extent to which cross-border M&A is influenced by tax avoidance motives and quantify the resulting tax savings.
Firms employ tax avoidance strategies like profit shifting or the relocation of their tax residence to …
It is no secret that American corporations face vigorous — and often conflicting — demands concerning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Over the past year, DEI initiatives and commitments have come under pressure in the face of macroeconomic headwinds, …
In the past few years, the economies of developing countries and emerging markets have been upended by the once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from the war in Ukraine. As a result, these economies have suffered from a array of …
On July 18, 2023, Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr cautioned banks against fair lending violations arising from their use of artificial intelligence (AI). Training on data reflecting societal biases; data sets that are incomplete, inaccurate, or nonrepresentative; …
The debate over short-term thinking at corporations has so far focused largely on companies in the U.S. and the UK. The fact that controlling shareholders are less common in those countries than in many others may explain why the extensive …
On July 12, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) voted 3 to 2 (Commissioners Peirce and Uyeda dissenting) to adopt certain amendments to rules and forms under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “Investment Company Act”) intended …
Financial statement fraud has many negative effects, including a reduction in people’s willingness to participate in the stock market. It may also cast accountants in a negative light because they prepare and audit financial statements – sometimes even fraudulent ones. …
CEOs and institutional investors have increasingly embraced Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations and used them in deciding where to invest. According to the Sustainable Investment Forum, the value of U.S. sustainable assets rose from $6.6 trillion in 2014 to …
Two recent indictments highlight the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) continuing use of the traditional wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft statutes to pursue fraud involving digital assets, indicating that law enforcement will look to prevent theft and scamming regardless …
Environmental and social (E&S) considerations have become integral to investment decisions in the past two decades, and more public firms are making E&S disclosures. Meanwhile, dozens of ESG reporting frameworks have emerged, and many jurisdictions have issued or are in …
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has proposed changes to its auditing standards that would significantly expand auditors’ responsibilities and oversight of a company’s noncompliance with laws and regulations. If adopted as proposed, the rules would require auditors to …
FINRA, the self-regulatory organization (SRO) responsible for overseeing broker-dealers in securities markets, now faces constitutional scrutiny about its structure, enforcement proceedings, and sanctions. In July, Judge Justin R. Walker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued …
On July 27, 2023, the federal banking agencies released a lengthy proposal to revise the capital rules applicable to large banks and bank holding companies. The headline news is that the banking agencies expect the proposal to increase capital requirements …