The Netherlands and the United States of America have signed a FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) Intergovernmental Agreement (the IGA) on 18 December 2013 to improve international tax compliance and to establish automated data exchange between the tax authorities of both countries beginning September 2015. FATCA is a US national law that requires all Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) worldwide to report the names and other information of their US clients (citizens and businesses) to the US Internal Revenue Service...

The Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) published a consultation paper entitled “Carrying out depositary duties in accordance with Article 36 of the AIFMD” (the “Consultation Paper”). The purpose of the Consultation Paper is to invite stakeholders in the funds industry to provide their views on the requirements that should apply where a fund administrator proposes to provide administration services and to perform the depositary duties set out in Articles 21(7) and 21(9) of Alternative Investment Fund Managers...

Austrian companies are innovative and are applying for an increasing number of patents. In 2013 the number of patent applications from Austria submitted to the European Patent Office rose by 6.5 percent. Accordingly, Austria ranks among the best in terms of inventiveness. On balance, 1,995 patent applications had their origin in Austria last year. Samsung once again led the individual company rankings. The South Korean mobile telephony group submitted 2,833 applications in 2013 to the European Patent Office, followed by...

Paris and New York (PRWEB) March 11, 2014 Paris and New York PR Firms Collaborate to Serve Media Clients with International Communications Needs. Paris-based IDENIUM, a public relations firm serving clients in the advertising, entertainment and media industry, announced today a new partnership agreement with New York-based OpenCommunications Omnimedia, a PR and digital content-creation company likewise specialized in the digital advertising and media field. As part of the agreement, OpenCommunications will be the official representative of IDENIUM in the United States...

On March 5, 2014, the United States Supreme Court decided BG Group, PLC v. Republic of Argentina, the first case in which the Court addressed an international investment treaty arbitration (a case between a private investor and a sovereign nation). In a 7-2 decision, the Court reversed a prior decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and reinstated a $185.3 million award against Argentina. The Court held that the D.C. Circuit was not entitled...

In the late 1980s, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began publicly suggesting that electronic medical records were within its jurisdiction. A lot has changed in 20+ years. The proliferation of mobile computing platforms and the applications they run has exploded. Health care providers have access to technology that was the stuff of science fiction in 1989, and health care consumers can track their own health status and records with the swipe of a finger. On September 25, 2013, the...

The percentage of loans paying off on their balloon date was 68.8% in February. This was the third straight month in which the rate declined. The payoff rate was 71.3% in January, 76.5% in December, and 81.3% in November. The latter was the highest rate in the last five years. (Trepp began measuring this statistic in August 2008.) The February payoff percentage is the same as the 12-month moving average of 68.8%. This number sums the averages of each...