Member News

USAM Group Adds Powerhouse Fintech Duo to Client Roster

USAM Group, a global team of enterprise sales and marketing professionals that matches financial institutions with best-of-breed solutions from advanced information and technology vendors, is pleased to announce the addition of two complementary offerings to its rapidly growing roster of fintech solutions: HeliumTM by Levyx is system-level data processing software that delivers unparalleled capacity, automatic persistence, and incredible speed, all while using any standard hardware. Neueda is a data technology and integration specialist with extensive capital markets expertise and...

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Member News

Binding Gender Quota for Listed Companies

On 3 December 2019, a motion was carried asking the government to require listed companies to have at least 30% female members on their supervisory board. The proposed binding quota is based on earlier recommendations of the SER. The government is not obliged to implement the motion. However, it was the government which asked the SER for its opinion on this subject, and the final report is the result of extensive consultation between trade unions, employers and independent experts. There appears...

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Chapter News

EMIR RTS on Various Amendments to the Bilateral Margin Requirements and Joint Statement on the Introduction of Fall-backs in View of the International Framework

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published today joint draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) to amend the Delegated Regulation on the risk mitigation techniques for non-cleared OTC derivatives (bilateral margining) as well as a joint statement on the introduction of fallbacks in OTC derivative contracts and the requirement to exchange collateral. BothRTS and the statement were developed to facilitate further international consistency in the implementation of the global framework agreed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the International Organisation...

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Member News

Big Tech Firms Entering Banking: Be Careful What You Wish For

Big tech firms, whether entering or already active on payments markets, are under scrutiny. PSD2 has opened up the payments markets to non-bank companies, but this comes with both risks and opportunities. EU regulators are examining anticompetitive risks, for example the possibility of leveraging a strong position in one market into another market. Competition, innovation, privacy and security for financial transactions will all be hot topics as scrutiny increases on providers of payment services. The message remains as vital as...

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Member News

New Section 301 Duties Proposed for Certain French Products

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has determined that the Digital Services Tax that will be imposed by France is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce. As a result, the Section 301 committee will hold hearings to determine which products from France may be subject to additional duties of up to 100% of the dutiable value to compensate for this action by France. The 63 tariff subheadings that have been identified as candidates for this...

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Member News

Thompson Hine Welcomes Joan E. Meyer

Thompson Hine LLP is pleased to announce Joan E. Meyer has joined the firm as a partner in the White Collar Criminal Practice, Internal Investigations & Government Enforcement practice group Joan has more than 25 years’ experience handling complex criminal and civil litigation, primarily domestic and international white-collar defense for companies involving anti-corruption, financial frauds, government contracting, false claims, securities and commodities violations, and trade compliance matters. She has tried scores of cases at the state and federal levels and...

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Member News

Virtual Currency: The Taxman is Coming

By Alan Winston Granwell, Andrea Darling de Cortes, and Alexander R. Olama of Holland & Knight LLP Virtual currency transactions are now a prime focus of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scrutiny. The IRS has numerous information-gathering tools to enforce its taxing power, including summons, artificial intelligence, data analytics, whistleblowers and even a taxpayer's social media. The takeaway from the IRS focus on this area is that individuals should properly report and pay tax on virtual currency transactions or prepare to pay back...

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Chapter News

The Working Methods of the von der Leyen Commission: Striving for More at Home and in the World

Today the von der Leyen Commission revealed its working methods which will be the basis for the new College to deliver on the President's Agenda for Europe during the next five years. They put collegiality, transparency and efficiency first. The Working Methods introduce a number of novelties to the way the Commission works, notably with regards to the role of the Executive Vice-Presidents, the High Representative/Vice-President, the Vice-Presidents and Commissioners' Groups. They also set up a new body for coordinating external relations...

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Member News

7 Essential Strategies for Marketing to Gen Z

By Joanna Dodd Massey, President & CEO of JDMA Inc They may be young, but Gen Z now accounts for 40% of consumers and already influences between $29 billion and $143 billion in direct spending. Since the youngest of them are only nine years old, their buying power will continue to grow. That means their importance simply cannot be overstated. Despite having similar psychographics to younger millennials, Gen Z is distinct in a variety of significant ways that smart marketers...

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Member News

Act introducing a collective damages action will come into force and effect on January 1st, 2020

The new act introducing a collective damages action on an opt-out basis for persons domiciled in the Netherlands will come in to force and effect on January 1st, 2020. As we reported in our newsletter of February 6th, 2019, no monetary damages could be sought on a collective basis under the old collective action regime. The essence of the new Act on the Resolution of Mass Claims in a Collective Action, also known by its Dutch acronym “WAMCA”, is that...

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