The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) recently approved an organizing group for a “shelf” charter, reviving a mechanism first introduced during the 2008-11 financial crisis to allow for broader participation by...more
Changing CEOs is one of the most critical decisions any board faces. In this issue of The Informed Board, we offer tips on how to avoid the mistakes we most often see. We also explain the problems companies could face if the...more
5/25/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Banking Sector ,
Board of Directors ,
CEOs ,
China ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Emerging Technology Companies ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
EU ,
Executive Orders ,
Export Controls ,
Exports ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Requirements ,
Financial Institutions ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Mergers ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Notice Requirements ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Technology ,
Technology Sector
This alert provides background on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and explains significant recent developments, including the subsequent failure of Signature Bank and the U.S. government’s announcement that the Federal...more
3/13/2023
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Deposit Accounts ,
Deposit Insurance ,
Depository Institutions ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Crisis ,
Financial Institutions ,
Receivership ,
Silicon Valley ,
U.S. Treasury
In the past year, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the Board) Biden administration officials, and other U.S. banking regulators have repeatedly voiced growing concerns about certain cryptoasset...more
2/7/2023
/ Banking Regulators ,
Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Biden Administration ,
Blockchain ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
OCC ,
Risk Assessment
On January 3, 2023, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a Joint Statement on...more
1/6/2023
/ Banks ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Joint Statements ,
Non-Bank Lenders ,
OCC ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Risk Factors
On September 16, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Department of Justice released four much-anticipated reports on different aspects of cryptoasset regulation. They confirm the Biden administration’s broad but...more
9/29/2022
/ Biden Administration ,
Blockchain ,
Criminal Investigations ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Assets ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Regulatory Agencies ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Popular ,
U.S. Treasury
On March 31, 2022, the Division of Corporation Finance and the Office of the Chief Accountant (Staff) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121), which provides...more
Takeaways -
The Bank for International Settlements and seven central banks are studying how to launch CBDCs and have flagged key issues that will need to be addressed, including interoperability and confidentiality.
In...more
The existing financial regulatory regime limits the inroads fintech companies can make in banking. That could change with decentralized finance and cryptocurrencies. ...more
To capitalize on the promise of artificial intelligence and alternative data, boards need to anticipate and mitigate various risks.
Takeaways
- Hidden biases need to be prevented.
- Neither regulators nor the public will...more
Despite political and economic uncertainties, markets and deal activity were resilient in 2019, and strong fundamentals remain in place heading into 2020. Companies continue to face a challenging litigation and enforcement...more
1/30/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Anti-Harassment Policies ,
Anti-Kickback Statute ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration Awards ,
Attorney General ,
Backstop Agreements ,
BEPS ,
BitLicense ,
Blockchain ,
Board of Directors ,
Bonds ,
Capital Markets ,
CFIUS ,
CFTC ,
Chapter 11 ,
Claim Preclusion ,
Class Action ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Common Stock ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Congressional Subpoenas ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Cooperation Agreement ,
Copyright ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Restructuring ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Corporate Taxes ,
Corwin Doctrine ,
Covenant Lite Deals ,
Creditors ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
DACA ,
DE Supreme Court ,
Debt Financing ,
Debtors ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Dischargeable Debts ,
Disgorgement ,
Disparate Impact ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Down Rounds ,
Drug Pricing ,
EBITDA ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement of Foreign Judgments ,
Enterprise Act 2002 ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
EU ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FinTech ,
FIRRMA ,
Foreign Acquisitions ,
Foreign Investment ,
Foreign Issuers ,
FRCP 23 ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
General Elections ,
GILTI tax ,
High-Yield Markets ,
Hong Kong ,
Hong Kong Stock Exchange ,
Individual Accountability ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intercreditor Agreements ,
International Arbitration ,
International Litigation ,
IRS ,
Issue Preclusion ,
Japan ,
Joint Venture ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Life Sciences ,
Listing Rules ,
Litigation Strategies ,
Make-Whole Premium ,
Mergers ,
MFW ,
Multinationals ,
National Security ,
PCAOB ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Political Parties ,
Preferred Shares ,
Private Offerings ,
Privately Held Corporations ,
Proxy Advisory Firms ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Refinancing ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Reporting Requirements ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Separation of Powers ,
Shareholder Activism ,
Shareholder Proposals ,
Shareholders ,
Split of Authority ,
State Labor Laws ,
Stock Drop Litigation ,
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ,
Tax Litigation ,
Technology Sector ,
Third-Party Release Agrements ,
Transparency ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
Valuation ,
White Collar Crimes
In recent years, fintech has been an attractive sector for growth capital, as evidenced by robust investment and M&A valuations in the sector. While interest remained high in 2019, deal volumes began to level off early in the...more
1/28/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Anti-Dilution Terms ,
Board of Directors ,
Common Stock ,
Dilution ,
Down Rounds ,
Equity Sharing Agreements ,
FinTech ,
Investment Funds ,
Investors ,
Mergers ,
Preferred Shares ,
Privately Held Corporations ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Recapitalization ,
Shareholders ,
Technology Sector ,
Valuation
In May 2018, President Donald Trump signed into law the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act. Sometimes called the Crapo bill after its sponsor Sen. Michael Crapo, R.-Idaho, the act eliminated or...more
On March 14, 2018, the U.S. Senate approved the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that would repeal or modify certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act and eliminate or ease a...more
4/26/2018
/ Acquisitions ,
Anti-Money Laundering ,
Bank Holding Company ,
Bank Secrecy Act ,
Brick-and-Mortar Stores ,
Compliance ,
Deregulation ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Exemptions ,
Federal Reserve ,
Foreign Banks ,
Franchises ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Mergers ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Regulatory Burden ,
Repeal ,
SIFIs ,
Stress Tests
A wide range of players participated in hundreds of financial technology (fintech) transactions in 2017, and the high level of global M&A and investment activity in fintech is expected to continue this year. Deals included...more
The Trump administration has provided few specifics regarding its plans for financial regulatory reform. But Republican control of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government should create a favorable...more
1/31/2017
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Deregulation ,
Dodd-Frank ,
FDIC ,
Federal Reserve ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Glass-Steagall Act ,
Mergers ,
Trump Administration ,
Volcker Rule
On December 2, 2016, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced its willingness to entertain applications from financial technology (fintech) companies for special purpose national bank charters. In recent...more
Bank management teams and boards of directors have made shareholder activism a key area of focus in light of significant activity in 2015. With the bank M&A market showing signs of life, the most basic end-game of investor...more
Two years ago, the U.S. banking industry was a rare exception to the trend of increased shareholder activism that was prevalent across industries. At the time, Skadden partners Brian Christiansen, David Ingles, Sven Mickisch...more
We expect the slowly developing but increasingly perceptible trend toward community and regional bank consolidation in the United States to continue in 2015. In connection with growing bank M&A activity, closing risk in the...more
While activity in the traditional bank M&A market remained tepid, transactions involving nonbank specialty finance companies attracted strong interest from the private equity community and strategic buyers alike in 2014. ...more
On 4 September 2014, the EU’s European Central Bank (ECB) published its final list of significant supervised entities and less significant institutions for the purposes of the Eurozone’s single supervisory mechanism (SSM),...more
On March 20, 2014, the European Parliament announced that it had reached political agreement with the European Council on the regulation implementing a single resolution mechanism (SRM), which is an essential element of the...more
The U.K.’s banking regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) recently published a consultation paper on its approach to supervising international banks (the Draft Supervisory Approach). ...more
Historically, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process was not used as a technique to recapitalize struggling banks. An aversion to using Chapter 11 was attributable in part to concerns that regulators and depositors might perceive...more