10 March 2021 was D-Day for sustainable finance disclosures. From now on, financial market participants and financial advisers must apply the sustainability disclosure obligations set out in the EU Sustainability Finance Disclosure Regulation (‘SFDR’). Financial markets participants and financial advisers must, without delay: decide if their products have sustainable investments as an objective or promote social and environmental characteristics, adapt amongst others their website disclosures, internal policies and pre-contractual client documentation (e.g. prospectus), and insert certain information in their periodic...

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COVID-19 continued to have a dramatic impact on European mid-market debt in H2. Lenders reassigned focus towards a much narrower set of sectors, supported clients by deploying government-backed funding and worked through issues with existing clients. After a year of once-in-a-generation GDP declines and with debt and working capital mounting, borrowers will need to consider all financing sources whilst ramping up profitability. Asset-based lending activity levels remain robust, while special situations teams at credit funds are also gearing up for...

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It was just one of many points European Council President Charles Michel made in his monthly newsletter on Tuesday afternoon, but his accusation of the “United Kingdom having imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components produced on their territory” caused an outright diplomatic spat between London and the EU institutions this week. Although the accusation have been making the rounds in Brussels for weeks already, not least because European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen...

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Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s newly renamed Division of Examinations (formerly known as the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations) published its 2021 Examination Priorities (“Exam Priorities”).  This annual guidance reports on the Division’s accomplishments and rates of examinations for the prior year, and seeks to promote compliance, prevent fraud, identify and monitor risk, and inform policy. It provides industry participants with a road map to plugging any gaps in their compliance. Many of the Exam Priorities are perennials—for example,...

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Nonprofit tax-exempt organizations have unique considerations with respect to navigating U.S. immigration processes and entity formation. Organizations hiring new talent or bringing employees across borders need to be aware of how their nonprofit corporate and tax-exempt statuses may impact and be impacted by immigration processes and rules. This article provides an overview of several employment and immigration compliance topics affecting nonprofit tax-exempt organizations operating in the U.S. Hiring From a nonprofit director’s perspective, hiring the most talented and dedicated employees is critical...

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Discussions on climate change policy are accelerating this year as countries prepare for COP26 which will be taking place in the United Kingdom in November 2021. The next few months will see a whole series of concerted actions around the globe in the run up to the conference at which over 30,000 delegates are expected. This will be the most significant conference on climate change since COP21 in Paris in 2015, which led to the Paris Agreement – and which...

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