Securities Law Committee Co-Chair's note January 2021.
In this session at the IBA 2020 -- Virtually Together conference, five expert panellists shared perspectives and comments on the following four topics: the current state of effectiveness of regulators regarding consumer protection in capital and financial markets; using technology to protect the markets and control abuse; diving into financial literacy; and data gate-keepers.
On 11 November 2020, ministers introduced the National Security and Investment Bill in the UK House of Commons. The Bill provides for a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)-style regime, granting the UK Government powers to scrutinise and intervene in a number of business transactions (for example, takeovers) on national security grounds.
In March 2018, the Russian President instructed the government and the Bank of Russia to develop an action plan to accelerate growth of investments and their share in gross domestic product. Shortly afterwards, the Russian Ministry of Finance developed a draft law ‘On Protection and Promotion of Investment in Russia’, which was announced in October 2018. It was assumed that the adoption of this law would improve the investment climate and give impetus to the development of the country's economy.
A report on a session presented by the Corporate and M&A Law Committee and the Securities Law Committee at the IBA Annual Conference 2020. Covid-19's impact on stock markets led governments and regulatory agencies to quickly put together relief measures designed to alleviate the immediate crisis. This session summarised those relief measures based on a multi-jurisdictional survey compiled by the IBA Securities Law Committee, and looked forward to activity in 2021.
In India, proxy advisory companies have gained importance in the last decade. India’s securities regulator, the SEBI, introduced regulations to govern proxy advisers in 2014, and recently, it has issued more detailed guidelines for them. This article assesses the impact of the recent guidelines and whether they threaten the ability of proxy advisers to fulfil their role in improving corporate governance.
Since the introduction of the variable capital company (VCC) framework in Singapore in January 2020, there have been close to 160 VCCs established as of the end of October 2020. The strong take-up in a relatively short period of time against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic has been encouraging and bodes well for Singapore’s push to be an asset management and fund domiciliation hub.
Co-Chairs' note - Securities Law Committee newsletter article, May 2020
By Gabriel Núñez and Susana Serrano de Frutos. Spain takes steps towards uniform market abuse conditions - Securities Law Committee
By Gabriel Núñez, Enrique Nieto and Álvaro López. Regulatory developments in 2020 for companies listed in Spain - Securities Law Committee
Benjamin Leisinger. Swiss Financial Services Act: legends and selling restrictions for cross-border offerings of securities under prospectus regime - Securities Law Committee
By Bruno Robert and Lucas Carneiro Gorgulho Mendes Barros. Is it time to end the Brazilian ban on multi-voting shares? - Securities Law Committee newsletter article, March 2020.
By Jerry Koh and Jonathan Lee. The increasing popularity of private funds - Securities Law Committee newsletter article, March 2020