From television commercials to naming rights for arenas, the topic of cryptocurrency has been hard to avoid. While cryptocurrency may be virtual, its creation or ’mining’ occurs in the real world. This mining poses a credit risk for utility companies, given the incredible amount of electricity required to operate a “mining” facility. For example, crypto mining company Core Scientific, Inc ...
By: Jack Darrington, Keven Rowe, and Landon Hardcastle Under a new Utah law, most providers of commercial financing or factors which are located in Utah or who lend to a Utah resident are required to register as a commercial financing provider with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. Additionally, certain disclosures are required before engaging in most transactions. To some extent, the law mirrors Truth in Lending type acts passed in New York and California ...
In a class action lawsuit filed Monday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Binance.US (Binance), a major cryptocurrency exchange, has been accused of misleading investors surrounding the Terra blockchain ecosystem. This is the first major court filing in the United States relating to Terra, whose UST and LUNC tokens crashed in May, wiping out around $40 billion in investor funds ...
Financial Industry, ICC Commission Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration, International Financing The ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR’s Task Force on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration recently published its ‘Report on Financial Institutions and International Arbitration’ (the “Report”) ...
On July 17, 2019, the Ohio Supreme Court resolved any doubt regarding the scope of Ohio’s construction statute of repose (R.C. 2305.131) and with it, delivered a clear victory to construction contractors in Ohio. In New Riegel Local School District Board of Education vs. Buehrer Group Architecture and Engineering, Inc., et al ...
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released guidance on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 H-1B lottery process. The registration system will be open from noon Eastern, March 6, 2024 until noon Eastern, March 22, 2024. The application fee will remain $10 for each case entered into the system ...
The USCIS on Friday, May 15, sent a request to Congress for $1.2 billion in emergency funding, proposing to pay it back with a 10% surcharge on application filing fees. The immigration service is entirely funded by these filing fees and has seen a significant drop in applications due to the coronavirus pandemic. It said in the statement it expects a 61% drop in revenue through the end of the fiscal year ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on countless businesses around the United States, including breweries. During this time, its understandable many businesses have allowed their trademark deadlines to pass without action due to lack of funds. In light of these hardships, the US Trademark Office has announced that if a business allowed a deadline to pass due to COVID-19, it will waive/refund any fees to Petition to Revive the abandoned application or registration ...
The new prior authorization regime for economic concentrations in Uruguay passed by Congress in 2019 is in force since April 2020 and therefore premerger control is since mandatory for a large set of transactions involving Uruguay. The Uruguayan Antitrust Commission has recently published the form for market participants to request antitrust authorization ...
In line with international models, South Africa has attempted to incentivize investment into the development and renewal of certain urban areas. One of these incentives is the accelerated tax depreciation allowance, introduced in 2003 by section 13quat of the Income Tax Act, 1962 and is commonly referred to as the Urban Development Zone ("UDZ") allowance ...
The Virginia General Assembly made significant amendments to general rules for construction contracts, as well as the specific rules for public entity construction contracts in the Prompt Payment Act, that largely remove the option of “pay when paid” contracts between general contractors and subcontractors. Beginning in 2022, Virginia Code section 11-4 ...
The Ministry of Public Works and Housing (“MPW”) has issued the Circular Letter No. 21/SE/M/2021 on The Procedures for Fulfillment of the Business License Requirements, the Implementation of Construction Work Competence Certification, and the Implementation of Business Entity Certificates and Construction Work Competence Certificates (“Circular Letter”) ...
Many jurisdictions in Northern California and throughout the State have ordered individuals who live in those communities to shelter in place to slow the spread of COVID-19. In addition, all businesses except for “Essential Businesses” have been ordered to close. Certain construction activities, however, are exempt from the Shelter-in-Place orders, including housing projects and public works ...
The IRS recently modernized the public approval process (“TEFRA approval”) for private activity bonds (“bonds”) for TEFRA approvals given on or after April 1, 2019. States and political subdivisions issuing bonds, or on whose behalf bonds are issued (“issuers”), and states and political subdivisions whose geographic jurisdiction contain the site of a project (“hosts”) may take advantage of these new rules ...
On 10 July 2020, the MA issued an updated Guideline, superseding the 2018 version. The Guideline provides guidance in relation to the Banking Ordinance’s minimum criteria for obtaining a banking or deposit taking license. Several technical changes have been made following recent changes to the supervisory regime ...
On March 1, the U.S ...
Last Friday, March 27, we published CARES Act: Paycheck Protection Loans and Eligibility for Loan Forgiveness. This alert is intended to provide an update concerning implementation of the Paycheck Protection Loan application process. The SBA has posted a Paycheck Protection Application Form on its website. Since the loans will be funded by private SBA lenders, and guaranteed by the SBA, most borrowers are lining up with private SBA lenders now ...
March 20, 2023 By: Manuel Fishman and Mary H. Rose What a week this has been since the closure of Silicon Valley Bank. As noted in our Client Alert of last week, California State regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on Friday, March 10, 2023, and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) as receiver for the bank ...
FCA clarifies applications timetable The transitional period for the implementation of AIFMD in the UK ends on 22 July 2014 and existing alternative investment fund managers' (AIFMs) must hold the correct Part 4A permission by that date ...
UPDATE - On March 20 in the evening, Governor Wolf issued a revised list classifying businesses as life-sustaining and non-life-sustaining. The press release, list and frequently asked questions can be found here. In addition, Governor Wolf has extended the timeframe for enforcement of the order. The Pennsylvania General Assembly recently completed the Appropriations hearings related to the FY 2020-2021 budget. The plans to resume the legislative session were altered due to COVID-19 ...
Bank Indonesia recently updated its regulation on domestic non-deliverable forward (DNDF) transactions. Bank Indonesia Regulation No. 24/7/PBI/2022 on Foreign Exchange Market Transactions (“BI Reg. 24/7/2022”) replaces the previous regulation on DNDF, BI Regulation No. 20/10/PBI/2018 (as amended). BI Reg. 24/7/2022 makes some noteworthy amendments on the DNDF terms and introduces new thresholds and provisions on DNDF transactions ...
February 17, 2023 By: Alexander Davis and Manuel Fishman Update This article is partly a republication of a Client Alert that was issued on December 6, 2022 titled “San Francisco’s Commercial Vacancy Tax.” Readers who have already read the original article can simply read ahead to the sections labeled “Update.” Commercial Vacancy Tax In March 2020, the voters of San Francisco approved Proposition D, also known as the Commercial Vacancy Tax ...