Sky Blog
The following comes to us from Paul C. Hilal, a Partner at Pershing Square Capital Management, a New York City-based hedge fund founded in 2004.
Is shareholder activism good for the world?
A simple question, and yet it’s the subject …
Our Blog’s most recent Marketplace for Ideas series has considered whether the SEC should tighten its rules under the Williams Act, which now require that investors must disclose purchases of a 5% or greater stake in public companies within ten …
The IRS has issued its first major ruling on the U.S. federal tax implications of transactions in, or transactions that use, Bitcoin and other convertible virtual currencies. The ruling stresses that it relates to convertible virtual currencies.[1]
One of the …
This year’s “SEC Speaks” conference in Washington, D.C., was most notable for an obvious shift in the SEC’s enforcement priorities. Several significant issues and efforts that had been the subject of extensive discussion last year – including financial crisis and …
On February 25, 2014, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, Representative Dave Camp (R.-Mich.), published the proposed Tax Reform Act of 2014 and an accompanying technical explanation written by the Joint Committee on Taxation (together, the “Camp …
On March 6, 2014, the Division of Clearing and Risk (the “DCR”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) issued a time-limited no action letter, extending the temporary alternative compliance frameworks available to “Eligible Affiliate Counterparties” (as defined in …
The Federal Reserve’s recent Dodd-Frank enhanced prudential standards final rule subjects foreign banking organizations with ≥ $50 billion in U.S. assets (“Foreign Bank”) to a qualitative liquidity framework. Among other things, the qualitative liquidity framework requires a Foreign …
The following remarks were delivered by Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. at the Institute of International Bankers 25th Annual Washington Conference on March 3, 2014. A copy of the speech is …
The following post comes to us from Kevin S. Haeberle, Post-Doctoral Research Scholar, Program in the Law & Economics of Capital Markets, Columbia Law School & Columbia Business School.
It is well understood that society is better off when …
It is well known that the Fed injected massive amounts of liquidity into the financial system during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Far less well known is that the Fed was not the only place banks obtained government-backed liquidity when market …
Although Davis Polk does not yet accept Bitcoin, we have been closely following the rapid-fire booms, busts and arrests in the Bitcoin and the larger cryptocurrency space.
Cryptocurrencies – including Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, Dogecoin and about a hundred others – …
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (the “Basel Committee”) has published a second Consultative Document containing revised proposals for the Basel securitisation framework (the “Revised Proposals”).[1] The Revised Proposals describe a revised set of approaches for determining the regulatory capital …
The following post is based on an article by Professor Steven Schwarcz of Duke Law School entitled Intrinsic Imbalance: The Impact of Income Disparity on Financial Regulation, which documents and examines the consequences of the extraordinary two-to-one income disparity …
On February 18th, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) voted unanimously to approve a final rule (Final Rule) implementing the enhanced prudential standards contained in Section 165 of the Dodd-Frank Act. This Client Alert discusses …
The following post comes to us from Charles Korsmo, Assistant Professor of Law, Case Western University School of Law and is based on his recent article, “Venture Capital and Preferred Stock,” 78 Brook. L. Rev. 1163 (2013). The full paper …
The following post is based on a memo originally published by Davis Polk & Wardwell on January 8, 2014. The original publication is available here.
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) rules require broker-dealer members to establish and maintain a …
The following post comes to us from Marcelo M. Prates, an Attorney at the Central Bank of Brazil. The full article, which is now published as the Central Bank of Brazil Working Paper no. 335 and has been recently noted …
The following comes to us from Annelise Riles, Jack G. Clarke Professor of Far East Legal Studies and Professor of Anthropology, Cornell Law School.
American International Group (AIG), the very name of this company screams out its US origins. And …
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has issued for public comment proposed guidelines (Guidelines) to establish minimum standards for risk management governance at large insured national banks, insured federal savings associations, and insured branches of non-U.S. banks
The following post comes to us from Charles K. Whitehead, Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, and is based on his recent paper, “Paying for Risk: Bankers, Compensation, and Competition,” which is co-authored by Simone M. Sepe, Associate Professor …