The Case for Optimism An ugly strain of populism reared its head in America this year. After months of spewing sexist, racist, homophobic, and xenophobic rhetoric, Donald Trump stunned pollsters—and the citizens whose ballots earned Hillary Clinton the popular vote—by winning the White House. Nativist politics won out, and Americans joined other populations, including Brexit supporters and Colombians who rejected the long-awaited peace deal, in voting against their self-interest. Through democratic means, fear surpassed reason repeatedly in 2016, leaving many...

The year 2017 marks Finland's centennial. The theme of the year is "together", and the special occasion will be celebrated together with all Finns, Finnish-Americans and friends of Finland around the U.S. Though many centennial events will take place around the actual Independence Day on December 6, many individuals and organizations are arranging events throughout the year. Finlandia Foundation Since 2006, when Finlandia Foundation National (FFN) created its Lecturer of the Year program, it has selected experts to visit FFN chapters...

A White & Case survey finds conventional financial institutions are becoming more proactive in their investments to Fintech players. Most financial institution executives in the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific expect to invest in financial technology players within the next two years in a quest for speed, efficiency and security, a survey by White & Case LLP found. Of the 150 senior financial sector executives the New York-based law firm surveyed, 95% said they expect to invest in a fintech deal...

Introduction Last November, more than 100 countries (including the Netherlands) concluded the negotiations for the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the "Convention"). The Convention is the outcome of OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting ('BEPS') Action 15 (a mandate for the development of a multilateral instrument on tax treaty measures to tackle BEPS) and is essential in implementing the outcome of certain OECD BEPS Actions in the more than 3,000...

On 8 December 2016 the Dutch Corporate Governance Code Monitoring Committee published the revised Corporate Governance Code. The new Code will take effect on 1 January 2017, which means that management reports for the year 2017 will have to comply with its provisions. The changes will require for many companies to amend their rules governing their supervisory board ("SB"). We are in the process of drafting standard rules which meet the new Code's requirements and will make this available to...

After a quarter of a century at Deutsche Bank, sub-investment grade debt specialist Anthony Forshaw says he's looking to work more closely with clients at Houlihan Lokey in London Anthony Forshaw's departure from Deutsche Bank AG (DB) after 25 years rising up the ranks had nothing to do with CEO John Cryan's sweeping reorganization of the German investment bank. Instead, when he left to join Houlihan Lokey Inc. (HLI), as a managing director in the capital markets group in London,...

GRANITO's team, including its CEO, recently returned from Macerata, the beautiful city in the south of Italy affected by several earthquakes. In Macerata, at the Bellisario Foundation conference of more than 200 professional women, managers and entrepreneurs, GRANITO's CEO spoke on the topic of women leadership, its perception, management and promotion abroad. The speech focused on illustrating alternative "business models" that can be used to endorse the promotion of gender equality in various work environments. GRANITO welcomes, once again, women and companies...

But Second Circuit’s Reversal of Defendants’ Conviction in Newman Unaffected by High Court Ruling in Salman Introduction In a much-anticipated ruling on insider trading, the Supreme Court held today, in Salman v. United States, that the disclosure of inside information by a corporate insider (tipper) to a “trading relative” (a tippee) constitutes a “personal benefit” for the tipper and is sufficient to convict a direct or indirect tippee who also trades on the information and knows about the intra-family “gift.” The...