Previously published in Reuters Breakingviews | By William R. Rhodes & Stuart Mackintosh | The U.S. Federal Reserve is belatedly reacting to high inflation. Whether or not Chair Jerome Powell manages to tame worrying price pressures, his rhetoric and actions are pushing up interest rates in poorer countries at a speed not seen in more than a decade. That spells real trouble for emerging markets and lower-income countries, which are already groaning under the weight of large sovereign debts. The 1980s...

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On January 18, 2022, Lina Khan, the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Jonathan Kanter, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), held a joint press conference to announce that the agencies would be requesting comments on considerations for new horizontal and vertical merger guidelines. The comments will help inform the agencies in drafting new guidelines for vertical and horizontal mergers. Once the new guidelines are drafted, the...

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In this News Update, we discuss the ESRB's recommendation for establishing a pan-European systemic cyber incident coordination framework, the AFM's overview on the special purpose acquisition companies market in the Netherlands, including how it is supervised and the risks involved with investing in it and regulatory publications regarding stress testing on climate risks in the banking and insurance sector. We further highlight some other financial regulatory publications issued last month. ESRB | Recommendation for establishing a systemic cyber incident coordination...

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On Jan. 24, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a press release in conjunction with a Federal Register Notice regarding the public comment period for the implementation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). The UFLPA, signed into law Dec. 23, 2021, requires the federal Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force to develop a strategy to prevent the importation of forced labor goods from China, and this comment period allows importers the opportunity to impact that strategy....

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Previously published in the Wall Street Journal | By William R. Rhodes and John Lipsky | Rising interest rates and slow economic growth will spur restructuring, but the procedures are inadequate for borrowers and lenders. Rising interest rates and slowing global economic growth likely will spur many low­ income countries to try to restructure their sovereign debt. This is troubling because recent restructuring cases have produced extended stalemates between borrowers and lenders rather than resolution. Existing international mechanisms for dealing with...

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Speaking to EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers ahead of Wednesday’s informal Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) in the French city of Lille, President Macron called on Ministers to further develop the EU’s free movement Schengen area to ensure it remains fit for the challenges of today. A reform of the Schengen area has been the agenda of EU JHA Ministers for several years, with little to no progress achieved so far. Together with the EU’s Single Market and...

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Highlights: The dollar is paring this week’s losses against most of the major currencies ahead of the US employment report, where all signs point to a weak report. The rate adjustment in Europe, which began before yesterday’s ECB meeting, was further encouraged by it.  The German two-year yield is rising for the ninth consecutive session, jumping more than 35 bp, and narrowing the fx-sensitive spread with the US. UK employees are seeing a large drop in real incomes due...

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The Rearview Mirror Robust multiples and fear that the Biden administration might succeed in passing tax laws resulted in 2021 being one of the busiest years ever in the private equity space. Within the capital markets, while the year was strong, the speculative market cooled off tremendously in the 4th quarter, particularly in pharma and biotech. Headwinds appeared toward the end of the year as buyer-side representations and warranty insurance (RWI) coverage became tough to get, and very expensive when available,...

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Imagine you receive an inquiry from a state Attorney General (AG) about your privacy or security practices, and you aren't sure what to do next. Maybe it's because you have been concentrating on compliance efforts related to the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and other new state privacy laws coming into effect, and you haven't focused as extensively on the existing suite of state privacy or security laws, or on state AG enforcement of federal privacy laws, that may...

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By decision of 7 January 2022, the Belgian Competition Authority approved the merger between the port of Antwerp and the Port of Zeebrugge. This merger deals with two important ports in Europe, in particular in the Hamburg – Le Havre range. The decision is important because it is one of the first decisions dealing with market definitions in mergers between ports. The Port of Antwerp is one of the important ports in the Hamburg – Le Havre range in Europe....

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