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27 Email Templates for Your Career - The Muse: You have plenty of stuff to worry about this ye...

The new 9/11 legislation provides an exception to foreign sovereign immunity for terrorist acts on U.S. soil. Bankers are concerned that Saudis will start pulling investments in the U.S. so that they are out of reach of asset freezes and court judgments.

The world’s top 10 investment banks have already paid out almost as much in fines and penalties so far this year as they did in the 12 months of 2015, dashing hopes that the outlay for misdeeds had begun to taper off. The banks have paid $9.79bn in

Top 10 groups have paid $9.8bn so far in 2016

UAE set to enact new bankruptcy law

New regulations seek to protect executives at failing businesses from criminal prosecution

What to expect, who to tell and how to limit the damage

Goldman Sachs has begun quietly pushing a computer program that allows investors to trade in the $8.4tn US corporate bond market without ever having to communicate with a person at the investment bank. Money managers and traders have in recent weeks

Low interest rates combined with increased capital requirements following the financial crisis have make it tougher for banks to make money. The only thing that they can do until conditions improve is to cut costs, for example, via e-trading.

The standard benchmark for return on equity for big banks is 9%-11%. Only Wells Fargo is expected to reach the double-digit rate this year.

Apple’s $14.5 billion (plus interest) back-tax bill

The EU Commission released a long-delayed decision after a three-year investigation ordering Apple to pay 13 billion euros plus interest in back taxes to Ireland. The Commission decided that Ireland illegally reduced Apple’s taxes via two advance tax rulings which violated EU’s state aid because it distorted competition in the EU. Member states cannot give tax benefits to some companies that are not available to other companies. The Commission stated that the amount of the back-tax payment could be lowered if other EU countries make Apple pay back-taxes to them as well.

Apple has two subsidiaries in Ireland – both are non-tax residents. They collected Apple’s non-U.S. profits, and allocated those profits to Apple’s head office in Ireland. This was controversial because it was relatively small compared to the amount of profits that they booked. An old Irish tax loophole allowed the head office’s profits to be untaxed in any country. The profits were subject to a reduced tax rate via two advanced tax rulings from the Irish government. The eventual tax rate was lower than Ireland’s 12.5% corporate tax rate.

The EU treaty generally prohibits state aid unless it’s justified by reasons of general economic development. Ireland has argued that the EU Commission’s decision is overreaching and threatens member sovereignty. Ireland plans to seek appeal, and will hold the payment in escrow during the appeal process. Apple will also appeal the decision.

The U.S. warned the EU about being a “supranational tax authority” last week. Additionally, a coalition of U.S. businesses warned the Dutch prime minister before the decision came out – not to reform its favorable corporate tax regime following the Brussels decision – as it would harm foreign investment in The Netherlands.

There are not many questions on which a man such as Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple , would agree with Donald Trump, the upstart Republican candidate. Corporate tax is one. In recent years Apple, along with the rest of the tech sector,

Jurors found a former Perella Weinberg Partners LP banker guilty in a major victory for prosecutors worried a recent appeals court ruling had tied their hands in fighting insider trading.

Summary below:

1. A former trader was found guilty on all counts in New York federal court this week when the jury found that the trader gave a gift of confidential information to family member (his father) who profited off of the illicit information. This is the first case since a 2014 New York federal appeals court (“2d Circuit”) decision that made it harder to prosecute insider trading cases by raising the evidentiary burden in such cases: need to show quid pro quo - that the tippee benefitted from the tip in a concrete way, and the tippee knew or should’ve known of the personal benefit to the tipper. So the fact that you traded off of a tip from a friend at a pharmaceutical drug company means nothing on its own.

2. In this case, the defendant’s father paid $10k for son’s wedding photographer – was that quid pro quo or something a parent would normally do? The jury must’ve found that and the timing to be too much to be anything other than quid pro quo. Jury rejected notion that defendant’s father deceived him.

3. The prosecutor successfully attacked the Defendant’s on the stand. He gave inconsistent testimony re: statements he made to internal compliance officers at the firm. The defense was also limited because the defendant’s father didn’t testify (already cut a deal and asserted the 5th amendment right not to testify so that they do not incriminate themselves).

a. Lesson in that: adhere closely/pay attention to your fiduciary duty. You might not be able to defend yourself at trial because the witness might be unavailable.

b. The government recently lost a case in the 2d Circuit because the state failed to show a sufficiently close relationship. The defendants were several levels removed from the tipsters. Tipsters didn’t intend to give personal benefit to the defendants.

4. The Supreme Court is currently considering a California insider trading case that can resolve a dispute amongst federal appeals courts about what prosecutors need to prove to obtain insider trading convictions. The question is whether prosecutors had to prove that the brother-in-law disclosed the information in exchange for a personal benefit:

a. The Supreme Court can decide narrowly and find that family members are different, and create an alternative basis for breach of a fiduciary duty.

b. Or, the Supreme Court can decide broadly and modify the current personal benefit requirement.

In the current low-return environment savers can be forgiven for asking, why should an ever-larger fraction of their meagre gains be paid to active asset managers? After all, the alternative — passive investing — is beguiling. Passive funds offer

Active managers are struggling but passive investment boom needs them

When Malaysia set up a government-owned investment fund in 2009, the idea was to raise money for energy, real estate and tourism projects that would produce jobs for Malaysians. Instead, insiders siphoned off billions of dollars and treated

Stable, liquid US financial markets are a magnet for corrupt cash. “There’s a reason kleptocrats like to put their assets in the US,” Mr Day says. “But hot money can really distort our markets and create risks for our financial institutions.”

US business has hit back at President Barack Obama’s attempt to stamp out tax-saving corporate deals by suing the American government in an aggressive bid to halt a crackdown on so-called inversions. The US Chamber of Commerce, the biggest corporate

The rationale behind a “wait and see” approach to Brexit

1. The referendum was not binding. It was merely an advisory vote.

2. It’s up to the government to get the ball rolling on a “Brexit”. The only way to exit is through Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which is basically like the Constitution of the EU.

3. Nothing can happen until the UK government triggers Art. 50 by giving formal notice to the other member states of their intent to leave the EU).

4. Also, Parliament would have to agree to leave the EU. They have to vote to approve a withdrawal agreement between the UK and the EU; and repeal the EU agreements.

5. Theresa May is seen by analysts as calm, fine and sensible. She is in no rush to trigger Art 50, and has already announced that she will not do so before the end of 2016.

Considering the above, I think that the “wait and see” approach that some banks, including Goldman Sachs, are taking to Brexit is sensible. The Financial Times also reported after the Brexit vote that Japaneses banks are waiting to see what GS does and plan to follow their lead.

The 12 years in which Michael Bloomberg served as mayor of New York will eventually get their historical due. They weren’t raucous and divisive like the mayoralties of Ed Koch and David Dinkins. There is no single moment or policy that marks out his

Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg!

Singapore is making sweeping changes to its system for combating money-laundering, three weeks after a crackdown on a Swiss private bank raised questions about regulatory oversight in the city-state. Authorities are investigating the conduct of a

The regulatory authority in Singapore will create a supervisory team and enforcement department.

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