Member News

BBGFX Update: Our Thoughts on a “Brexit”

As we approach the U.K.'s EU referendum on June 23, Bannockburn Global Forex, LLC has put together their thoughts on potential outcomes for a remain or leave vote below.  At the time of this writing the spot rate for the Gbp/Usd is 1.4250 and Eur/Gbp .7935. As evidenced with the June 13 Gbp/Usd trading range of 1.4116 – 1.4321 (being a 1.5% range), we expect the daily volatility for any Gbp related currency pair to remain elevated as we approach June 23....

Read more

Member News

IIE Receives Innovation in Philanthropy Award from Go Abroad Foundation

Institute of International Education receives national recognition for emergency support for students and scholars. The Institute of International Education received the GoAbroad Foundation's Innovation in Philanthropy award for the IIE Emergency Student Fund and Scholar Rescue Fund during the NAFSA Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado. IIE most recently awarded 91 emergency grants to Syrian and Yemeni students on U.S. college and university campuses facing urgent financial need due to on-going crises in their home countries, and since its inception in...

Read more

Member News

Reforms to the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act and REIT Taxation

The reforms generally encourage foreign investment in U.S. real estate. The enacted Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (the Act) contains numerous reforms to the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980 (FIRPTA) and the taxation of real estate investment trusts (REITs). Highlights of these changes are discussed below. FIRPTA Reforms Foreign Pension Fund Exemption The Act exempts "qualified foreign pension funds" from FIRPTA taxation so long as such a fund is not already engaged in a business in...

Read more

Member News

Essilor named No. 5 in Newsweek’s 2016 Green Rankings

Essilor announced today that it was ranked N(o). 5 in the 2016 Newsweek Green Rankings, created in partnership with Corporate Knights and HIP Investor. Since 2009, the Newsweek Green Rankings have been one of the world's foremost corporate environmental rankings which assess the overall environmental performance of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the United States and the 500 largest publicly traded companies globally. With 61,000 employees in 63 countries, nearly 540 production sites on five continents and more...

Read more

Chapter News

Key players from across the world come together for the 10th anniversary of European Development Days

The European Development Days is a two day event in Brussels on 15-16 June to generate new ideas, take action and shape the future with world leaders, young leaders and hundreds of speakers, civil society organisations and international organisations. Tomorrow the "European Development Days 2016'' (EDDs) will officially open its doors to a record number of over 6,000 development professionals from around 150 countries who will attend what has become Europe’s leading forum on global development and cooperation. Commissioner for International...

Read more

Chapter News

Employment up by 0.3% in euro area and EU28

First quarter of 2016 compared with the fourth quarter of 2015 - Employment up by 0.3% in euro area and EU28 - +1.4% in both areas compared with the first quarter of 2015. The number of persons employed increased by 0.3% in both the euro area (EA19) and the EU28 in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the previous quarter, according to national accounts estimates published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the fourth quarter...

Read more

Member News

Inspirational program helps UK school children see a bright future

Essilor UK is reaching out to local schools to help prepare pupils for employment while screening their eyes and raising awareness of the importance of healthy vision. This month, Essilor UK began an educational campaign with neighboring schools to its Thornbury site near Bristol. Volunteers from the company screened students to raise awareness of the importance of regular eye care and at the same time helped the students learn how to design and build telescopes. Hundreds of children were screened along with...

Read more

Member News

PwC teams with Vlocity to strengthen industry-specific cloud capabilities

PwC US and Vlocity to provide clients industry-specific, omni-channel cloud-based solutions to deliver high quality customer experiences. On June 10, 2016 PwC US announced it had launched a joint business relationship and collaboration agreement with Vlocity, a leading industry cloud company, to help organizations create omni-channel customer experiences tailored for industry-specific needs. As customer expectations continue to grow, organizations are turning to cloud technologies to create specialized business apps that deliver seamless customer interactions across any channel, giving organizations faster time-to-value. Through this...

Read more

Chapter News

The European Commission adopts a new and comprehensive Skills Agenda for Europe

The aim of the Skills Agenda is to ensure that people develop a broad set of skills from early in life and to make the most of Europe’s human capital, which will ultimately boost employability, competitiveness and growth in Europe. 70 million Europeans lack adequate reading and writing skills, and even more have poor numeracy and digitals skills. This puts them at risk of unemployment, poverty and social exclusion. On the other hand, a large number of Europeans, particularly high-qualified...

Read more

Chapter News

The world’s biggest Single Market: Europe’s greatest asset and its chance for new growth

Today Europe’s business leaders gather in Amsterdam with a clear agenda: how to get more from the European Union’s Single Market. The Single Market is a great achievement. By allowing people, services, goods and capital to move freely in the world's largest economy – our half-billion consumers are served by 30 million businesses generating €14 trillion – we all benefit from more choice and lower prices. For our companies it means new business opportunities; for our citizens, the chance...

Read more