The French-American Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2013 Young Leaders selection process! The Young Leaders program, the flagship program of the French-American Foundation, was created in 1981 to foster a new network of trans-Atlantic leaders. Since its inception, the program has taken small groups of carefully selected up-and-coming leaders in government, business, media, the military and the non-profit sector and provided them with the opportunity to spend five days together two years in a row, once...

Some of the best holiday memories are about friends and family enjoying a meal together. Need ideas to liven up this year's menu?  Take a look at the Washington Delegation's cookbook What's on the menu full of recipes contributed by our very international staff members. Learn more.

Financial Services Alert - Compliments of EACC New York Founding Member Pepper Hamilton LLP On December 12, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia released its decision in Investment Company Institute v. U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission rebuffing the Investment Company Institute (ICI)'s and U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber)'s efforts to overturn recently adopted Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) amendments to CFTC Rules 4.5 (exclusion from definition of commodity pool operator) (CPO) and 4.27 (CPO and CTA reporting...

The European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) has published its Final Report on Guidelines on repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements (the “Final Guidelines”) for UCITS. The Final Report which includes a Feedback Statement, contains an annex detailing the Final Guidelines. The main aim of the Final Guidelines is the protection of investors through the introduction of requirements on using repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements. The main features of the Final Guidelines are as follows: A UCITS that enters into a repurchase agreement...

A Cooperation Agreement has been approved between the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (“FINMA”). ESMA negotiated this on behalf of all 27 European Union (“EU”) authorities for securities markets regulation in order to fulfil the pre-condition under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (“AIFMD”) to provide for third party access to EU markets and to allow for fund management delegation. The main aspects of the Cooperation Agreement are: the supervision by the EU and...

The Central Bank of Ireland (the “Central Bank”) issued a “Dear CEO” letter to credit and financial institutions (together the “Firms”) in relation to compliance with the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 (“CJA 2010”). This follows inspections carried out by the Central Bank to monitor anti-money laundering (“AML”) compliance by Irish firms (including investment funds and their service providers). The letter gives an overview of potential control weaknesses and failures identified during the Central Bank’s inspections. Additionally,...

The Irish Minister for Finance has announced in his Budget speech of December 5th 2012 that new legislation to provide for Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”) will be enacted in Ireland shortly. The Minister stated: “In order to attract new investment, I will provide for the establishment of Real Estate Investment Trusts, which allow for investors to finance property investment in a risk diversified manner.” It can be noted that Ireland, unlike the US, Germany and the UK, has not had a...

Irish Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, has confirmed that negotiations with the US in relation to a new inter-governmental agreement ("IGA") have now been concluded, and as a result Ireland will be one of the first jurisdictions to enter into a new IGA with the US to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”). These bilateral agreements will aid the US in tackling tax evasion and improving international tax compliance. It is anticipated that, under the Ireland-US IGA, Irish financial institutions will be able...