In March the SEC finished receiving comments on an alteration mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act that changes the calculation which determines whether an individual can be considered an “accredited investor.” The alteration, which already went into effect upon passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, excludes the net equity an investor may have in his/her home from […]
Johnson, Sylvester, Funke, oh my!: The ARB Paves the Way for Greater SOX Whistleblower Protection
Earlier this year, The Network reported on some changes made to the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) whistleblower provisions by the enactment of the Dodd-Frank bill. In recent months, the Administrative Review Board (ARB) – the appeals board for decision issued by Administrative Law Judges in the Department of Labor – has made monumental transformations to existing case […]
Revamping Patent Law: What it Means for Business Method Patents
The Senate and House of Representatives recently passed legislation that revamps patent law by updating the process for challenging patents and awarding a patent to the first inventor to file a specific claim.Of particular interest to our readers, the “American Invents Act” (S. 23 and H.R. 1249) creates a new post-grant review procedure that […]
Dodd-Frank One Year Later: A Lot of Unfinished Business
The one-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) marks an important moment to review and reflect on the transformative changes that have taken place since enactment of the sweeping reforms. Yet, much of the work to implement those reforms is still underway.A slew of reports and studies were released to recognize the significant milestone, and […]
Transparent Oil: New Dodd-Frank Requirements
Written by Anderson Franco & Angélica Salceda Theoil industryhas recently criticized the Dodd-Frank Act’s oil and gas reporting rules by claiming that the transparency requirements will result in restrained money flows between oil companies and governments. Under Dodd-Frank, all oil, gas and mining companies registered with the SEC must report payments to foreign governments on […]
SEC Rolls Out the “Skin in the Game” Regulation to Mitigate Moral Hazard for Lenders and Bond Issuers Involved in Asset-Backed Securities
On March 31 the SEC began seeking public comment on its proposed “skin in the game” regulation, which would require lenders and bond issuers of asset-backed securities (ABS’s) to retain 5% of the credit risk of the securities they issue. This requirement would apply to each of the tiers of ABS’s issued individually, preventing a […]
Don’t Count Me In: Firms Scramble to Avoid Making the “Systemically Important” List
As reported in a previous post on this forum (see Fed Proposes Definitions for Systemically Important Nonbank Financial Institutions) the Fed proposed a rule on February 8th regarding when a company would be considered “systemically important.” This rule is significant because the designation would be accompanied by a large number of regulatory requirements (which would […]
Let the Delegation Continue: Supreme Court Reaffirms Deference to Administrative Agencies in Regulatory “Interpretation” of Statutes
On January 11th the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Mayo v. U.S. The decision reaffirmed the Court’s use of the Chevron standard, under which government agencies are given broad authority to make any “reasonable interpretations” of statutes so long as Congress does not specifically and clearly address the issue in the relevant legislation. […]
What’s at Stake in the Ongoing Mortgage Servicing Settlement Negotiations?
Potentially $135 billion or the political demise of the CFPB. Ahead of the first face-to-face negotiations between major banks and government agencies over a proposed mortgage servicing settlement, additional information is surfacing over the potential scope and scale of the settlement. An internal presentation by the CFPB to the 50-state Attorneys Generals estimates that mortgage servicers avoided $20 […]
And the Winner Is: Annual Voting on Executive Compensation
As reported in February, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued final rules regarding the Dodd-Frank’s so-called say-on-pay provision in January. The new rule requires SEC filing companies to allow shareholders to have an advisory vote on executive compensation as well as an advisory vote on how frequently shareholders will vote on executive compensation. Shareholders […]