The White House has been working with the Department of Justice to formulate changes to the H-1B visa program pursuant to the administration’s “Buy American and Hire American” executive order. The H-1B visa program is a temporary work visa for professional positions. Apart from the required involvement of the Department of Homeland Security, some of the proposed changes to the program could be implemented by administrative actions, while others would require new legislation to be passed. Proposed Changes That Would Require...

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Former White House Special Advisor will lead Latin America practice. July 10, 2017, Washington, DC  – Daniel P. Erikson was named Managing Director at Blue Star Strategies, LLC, where he will lead the firm's Latin America practice representing U.S. corporations across Latin America and the Caribbean and Latin American businesses with interests in the United States. Erikson has had an outstanding career as a diplomat in the U.S. State Department and the White House, where he served as special advisor for...

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Parliamentarians in Strasbourg have this week voted to introduce new rules that would enforce multinational companies operating in the EU to publish details of their profits on a country-by-country basis. The legislation is part of an overall campaign to reform broader tax regulation in an effort to cut down on multinational tax avoidance.   Similar laws already exist for the banking sector, but MEPs extended the rules to cover all multinationals that operate in Europe. This will result in companies...

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Following on from the European Commission’s €2.4bn fine against Google last week, the trade commissioner Margrethe Vestager has called for tougher powers to be granted to her competition department in order to intervene earlier in antirust problems. These so called interim measures would avoid long delays previously experienced in EU investigations by allowing the commission to order companies to cease suspected anti-competitive behaviour even before there is a formal finding of wrongdoing.   Speaking to the media, Ms. Vestager spoke of...

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NYC's REAP, ECSP, LMEP, CRP, CEP, CRT, and other Programs Renewed for 3 years!  Right Now is a Great Time to Plan for the Rest of 2017 and Beyond.     About NYGC: For 15 years, NYGC has succeeded in obtaining more than $800 million for 5,000+ clients in government grants, tax credits, energy discounts, rebates and alternative financing. Our award-winning incentive experts seek and secure local, county, state and federal programs to maximize these awards for years to come. Industries Served: Back...

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Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that The Nature's Bounty Co. and The Carlyle Group have agreed to sell Holland & Barrett to L1 Retail for £1.8 billion ($2.3 billion). L1 Retail, the retail investment arm of LetterOne, has agreed to purchase Holland & Barrett for £1.77 billion. Houlihan Lokey served as a financial advisor to The Carlyle Group and The Nature's Bounty Co. The transaction is expected to close by September 2017, subject to customary regulatory approvals. Further financial...

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    The USD continued to weaken in June against most currencies, generally falling below the levels seen before the US election. This was partly due to continued disappointment at the lack of any progress from the Trump administration on tax reform or infrastructure spending, but was also related to changing expectations of monetary policy outside the US, with several foreign central banks taking more hawkish/less dovish stances. The ECB is probably in sharpest focus after Draghi’s comments at the ECB...

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Written by Karen Cheung, Vistra Hong Kong Director, Business Development, Corporate & Private Clients Through our International Expansion Division, we help our clients ease through the administrative headaches of entering new markets.  Vistra itself is now going through a dynamic phase of expansion and we have learnt a few things ourselves that we would like to share with you.   1. Define your goal – Think about what you want to achieve. Are you looking to expand your geographical coverage, product expansion, diversify...

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The OCC Bulletin sends a clear message that fintech-enabled services have become an integral part of the financial services ecosystem. On June 7, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued OCC Bulletin 2017-21 (Frequently Asked Questions to Supplement Bulletin 2013-29; Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management Guidance). This is the OCC’s second bulletin focusing on third-party oversight released this year (click here for our analysis of OCC Bulletin 2017-7). The first bulletin was directed to national bank examiners and established procedures for evaluating the...

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France has just been through a major election period occurring every five years, which also marks a profound reshaping of its political landscape. The memo below outlines the main takeaways of these past few months and what it means for France as well as for the EU. Executive Summary • The election of President Macron marks a new stage in the reshaping of the French political framework, with the victory of an independent candidate transcending the classic Left/Right divide. • The Government...

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