December liquidation volume and loss severity stayed fairly close to November’s levels, which were a rebound from two months of below average activity. Liquidation volume registered $1.28 billion in December, up slightly from $1.21 billion in November and in line with the 12-month moving average of $1.18 billion. Of the loans liquidated, 90% fell into the greater than 2% loss severity category. December loss severity came in at 50.36%, up from November’s 48.10% and considerably higher than October's 38.58%. The...

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On 18 December 2013, the Irish Funds Industry Association (the “IFIA”) released Investment Funds Sectoral Guidelines on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (the “Sectoral Guidelines”). The release of the Sectoral Guidelines follows extensive engagement between the IFIA and the Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) in order to develop a standard that the Central Bank can use in determining that an investment fund has adequate measures...

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With recent changes in international tax planning and the need to look further afield when deciding the most suitable jurisdiction for structuring purposes, the UK has positioned itself as an important centre to consider. In addition to having a good international reputation, political stability and being a member of the EU, the UK can offer the following potential advantages: • A wide tax treaty network - over 100 double taxation treaties. • The tax treaty network enables dividends from many countries...

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Monday, December 23, 2013 -- This is the second in Pepper’s series of client alerts dealing with specific effects of the ‘Volcker Rule’ on various market segments. On December 10, 2013, after more than three years of intensive development, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted final regulations implementing the...

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1.       Introduction Crowdfunding is an innovative instrument to finance projects by using on-line portals as an alternative to traditional forms of financing. The public can support projects with a social purpose, as well as new entrepreneurial initiatives, by paying their contributions through on-line portals which usually operate as platforms for donation-based or social lending, or through reward based crowdfunding, depending on whether the contribution is made as a donation or loan between private individuals, or whether a reward is provided...

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The last quarter of 2013 saw a substantial M&A activity in the luxury and premium branded goods industry. According to the news circulating in the sector, many multinational brands as well as smaller brands are seeking for strategic financial partners that may help the brand to expand and support their business in the globalization era. This interest of luxury companies in the collection of investment made by financial partners are aimed at collecting funds that may assist them in complex...

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The Netherlands offers a solid combination of a stable economy, a reliable tax regime and a sophisticated, internationally oriented infrastructure. In addition, the Dutch economy is noted for its stable industrial relations and plays an important role as a European transportation hub. The Dutch government strongly supports that the legal and economic environment remains attractive for multinational companies to locate their (regional) headquarters in the Netherlands. On 30 August 2013, the Dutch minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation and...

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One of the stories heralding the comeback of the CMBS market in the fall of 2012 surrounded the first CMBS loan to be written on a Detroit office building in five years. The loan was the $26.6 million One Kennedy Square note. The Wall Street Journal's Maura Webber Sadovi had written an article on the loan at the time. A new story from the WSJ on Wednesday revived our interest in the note. Yesterday's article was regarding the increase in office property sales in the...

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The global cost of corruption is estimated at US$ 1 trillion by the World Bank Institute. The audience at the 6th In-house Counsel Monitor event Monday 2 December in Amsterdam was given an opening wake-up call by Jermyn Brooks, Board Member and Chair, Business Advisory Board of Transparency International. This is an enormous amount of money hampering fair competition and in the end mostly burdening low income earners and small businesses. After an initial period with a few landmark cases,...

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‘You Know It When You See It’ – Or Do You? This is first in Pepper’s series of Client Alerts dealing with specific effects of the ‘Volcker Rule’ on various market segments. On December 10, 2013, after more than three years of intensive development, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted...

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