Columbia Law School
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Intangible assets continue to represent a significant portion of the overall Balance Sheet globally. Over 40% of capital in the US today is in the form of intangible assets, as assessed by our ISS EVA (Economic Value Added) methodology. The
Finance & Economics
Debevoise & Plimpton Discusses Federal Regulators’ Focus on AI and Consumer Protection in Finance
As financial institutions increasingly deploy artificial intelligence (“AI”), including machine learning and automated decision-making technologies, across their business lines, U.S. federal regulators have started to scrutinize the consumer protection implications of these technologies. Most recently, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), …
Sullivan & Cromwell Discusses Stablecoins Report of President’s Working Group on Financial Markets
The Dark Side of Information Dissemination
For decades, there has been an important debate over how much securities regulators should focus on protecting small investors. The regulators themselves have generally aimed to create a level playing field among investors, and historically, new technology has been an …
Are Climate-Change Risks Reflected in Stock Prices?
Climate-change risks can result from physical forces like wildfires, floods, or droughts or from changes in policy, the so-called transition risks created by government actions or the adoption of new technologies. A key question for academics, policy makers, firms, and …
Davis Polk Discusses the FSOC Climate Report: 10 Key Takeaways for the Banking Sector
The FSOC Climate Report views “climate-related financial risk as an emerging threat to the financial stability of the United States.” Here are our 10 key takeaways on a critical step in what will be a long and complex journey.
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Comparing Angels and Venture Capitalists as Investors in Entrepreneurial Firms
Angel investors (angels) and venture capital (VC) investors are both important sources of financing for entrepreneurial firms, but some critics, particularly VCs, often believe that angels are less able than VCs to perform due-diligence. However, an alternative view holds that …
Stablecoins, National Currencies, CBDCs, and Banks
The Federal Reserve is set to release a much anticipated discussion paper on the prospect of a digital U.S. dollar. According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), over 86 percent of central banks are investigating the possibility of a …
Economic Downturns and the Informativeness of Management Earnings Forecasts
Economic downturns brought about by events such as the financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic create substantial uncertainty for companies. While some firms endure the downturns unscathed or even thrive, others see their businesses decline drastically and their bankruptcy risk increase. …
The Leverage Effect of Bank Disclosures
In a new paper, The Leverage Effect of Bank Disclosures, we challenge the widespread view that disclosure requirements prompt banks to reduce their risk and leverage. That view has prevailed since at least 2004, when the Basel Committee introduced Pillar …
COVID-19, Corporate Leverage, and Financial Fragility
The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to combat its spread were an unprecedented shock to corporate cash flows and consequent need for external financing. How did corporate leverage respond? More important, what does the impact on leverage mean for financial stability? …
Attention to Dividends, Inattention to Earnings?
Why do firms pay dividends? A well-known finance theory proposes that, in frictionless markets, dividends are irrelevant for firm valuation because an investor’s wealth does not change if the firm holds a dollar in the bank or if the firm …
The Economics of Crypto Funds
Crypto funds are a new financial intermediary that trade in cryptographically protected digital assets, known as coins or tokens. Both the number of crypto funds and investments in crypto funds are soaring. As of the second quarter of 2021, more …
Fragile Financial Regulation
As COVID-19 rocked financial markets in March 2020, the Treasury market failed to perform its role of maintaining financial stability. Unable to respond to the surge of investors liquidating their Treasury holdings to raise cash, the secondary market ground to …
Public Information and Capital Flows: Evidence from a Betting Market
What are the consequences of increasing public information in a market of risk-seeking participants? Academics and policy makers alike are grappling with this question following the influx of speculative capital flows from individual investors in financial markets. As platforms such …
Davis Polk Discusses FinCEN, CFTC Penalties on Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange
The CFTC and FinCEN recently announced a settlement with BitMEX for $100 million to resolve an enforcement action related to the exchange’s failure to register as a futures commission merchant and failure to establish a BSA/AML compliance program.
The Order
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The Triumph of a Local Focus in Troubled Times
The emphasis on the contribution of local knowledge to economic growth is a key tenet of classical economic theory. The Hayekian worldview, for example, sees the dispersion of local pockets of knowledge across the economy as the primary reason why …
Moving Beyond Mutual Funds
As has become widely known in the past few years, the mutual-fund industry is more concentrated than ever, especially because of the growing use of index funds. Whether this is a problem and how to respond have been the topics …
ISS on Maximizing Good Results in Global Sustainable Finance Industry
The global sustainable finance industry has been described as an ‘industry in transition’, according to the recently-released Global Sustainable Investment Review 2020. This is reflective not only of the growth of the industry, but also the steps taken by
Debevoise & Plimpton Discusses the State of the LIBOR Transition
On March 5, 2021, LIBOR’s administrator, ICE Benchmarks Administration (the “IBA”), and LIBOR’s regulator, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”), announced that LIBOR will no longer be provided (i) for all sterling, euro, Swiss franc and Japanese yen settings, …