A letter from Portolano Cavallo: Dear clients, friends and business partners, We recently strengthened our Life Sciences practice, hiring two senior professionals that will add significant experience and skills to Portolano Cavallo. Marco Blei will focus on Intellectual Property and Life Sciences IT matters, Elisa Stefanini on regulatory issues. Both professionals come from BonelliErede, where they were members of the "Healthcare and Life Sciences" Focus Team. In his fifteen-year IP, IT and Privacy experience, Marco has assisted  players in the pharmaceutical, and...

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On January 19, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued final, temporary, and proposed regulations (the “Regulations”) under section 871(m) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). Code section 871(m) imposes withholding tax on U.S. source “dividend equivalent” payments made on certain derivative financial products, including notional principal contracts (“NPCs”), equity linked instruments (“ELIs”), and sales-repurchase agreements. The Regulations serve to both clarify and codify much of the official and regulatory guidance issued under...

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ING records robust commercial growth in 2016 while achieving a number one NPS score in 7 of 13 retail markets · ING gained over 1.4 million new retail customers and grew primary relationships by 8.1% to 9.7 million · Business growth was robust in 2016 with EUR 34.8 billion net core lending growth and EUR 28.5 billion net customer deposit inflow   ING Bank full-year 2016 underlying net profit of EUR 4,976 million, up 17.9% from full-year 2015 · Strong full-year 2016 results reflect robust commercial growth...

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Perhaps in response to the recent presidential election, the demand for immigrant visas has noticeably surged across most employment-based immigrant visa preference categories. While the final action dates for most preference categories have moved forward, meaning additional numbers of foreign nationals may proceed with applications for immigrant visa processing or adjustment of status, Charles Oppenheim, the Chief of the Visa Control and Reporting Division at the U.S. Department of State (DOS), forecasts that additional final action cutoff dates are...

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 The FX market continues to wait for more information on the Trump presidency before settling on a direction for the USD. The USD weakened though much of January as the market squared up some long USD positions established on the basis of an expectation of expansionary economic policies from Trump, as political concerns and lack of clarity on the economic agenda clouded the outlook. However, the Fed still seems intent on tightening again by the middle of the year...

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