The Situation: Intensifying public interest in companies' Environmental, Social, and Governance ("ESG") information has prompted many to make voluntary ESG disclosures.
The Result: The Project for Growth and Opportunity...more
ESG—Environmental, Social, and Governance—investing is attracting the attention of pension funds, hedge funds, sell-side analysts, large money managers, lenders and banks, and political interest groups and activists, all of...more
The Situation: As part of its drive to develop financing for sustainable growth, the European Union is developing an EU-wide classification system for sustainable activities. This common language will be used by market...more
The Situation: ICOs and digital assets have become a new phenomenon that has impacted many aspects of our modern economies and created an alternative way of financing for start-ups or small and medium-sized...more
5/29/2019
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Criminal Sanctions ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Assets ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Instruments ,
France ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Registration Requirement ,
Token Sales
The Situation: The European Union continues to roll out its Action Plan for Financing Sustainable Growth with its latest proposal concerning climate-related disclosures and the European Commission's launch of a public...more
3/18/2019
/ Climate Change ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Governance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Policies ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
New Guidance ,
Popular ,
Public Interest Entities ,
Reporting Requirements
The Situation: On February 4, 2019, the French Anticorruption Agency published its much-awaited practical guide for anticorruption compliance.
The Result: Through this publication, the Agency gives key guidance to company...more
Energy-positive buildings are a hot topic in the next wave in Environmental, Social and Governance investing, in anticipation of the EU directive which will require that all new projects built are "nearly zero energy" as from...more
2/28/2019
/ Asset Management ,
BREEAM ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Construction Industry ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Energy Efficiency ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Financial Institutions ,
Green Buildings ,
LEED Certified ,
Member State ,
Popular ,
Real Estate Investments ,
Renewable Energy ,
Sustainability
Currently in the European Union, no level playing field exists for asset management and rating agency activities when it comes to ensuring sustainability. The European Securities and Market Authority ("ESMA") is proposing...more
Due to the increasing awareness of the importance of environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") initiatives, the European Commission came forward at the end of May 2018 with a proposal related to this topic. The proposal...more
11/2/2018
/ Capital Markets ,
Climate Change ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Environmental Policies ,
EU ,
Green Bonds ,
Investment ,
Loan Market Association ,
Member State ,
MiFID II ,
Popular ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Shareholder Proposals
On 20 July 2017, Belgium adopted legislation establishing senior non-preferred notes, a new category of debt securities available to banking institutions. The law provides for a new Article 389/1 into the Law of 25 April 2014...more
The Pre-Emption Group has released a monitoring report which looks at the implementation of the Statement of Principles and the template resolutions regarding disapplication published by the Group in May 2016. The Statement...more
The United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") published a policy statement on 26 October 2017 setting out certain amendments to the Listing Rules ("LRs") and related technical notes ("Policy Statement"). The FCA...more
During the last decade, negative interest rates have raised concerns in the European debt capital markets landscape. Prospectuses often allow the issuance of debt securities for which the interest rate is linked to indexes...more
12/7/2017
/ AMF ,
Bonds ,
Capital Markets ,
Corporate Issuers ,
EU ,
EU Prospectus Regime ,
EURIBOR ,
France ,
Interest Rates ,
Investors ,
Libor
On 20 July 2017, the new EU Prospectus Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2017/1129) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or...more
On 25 June 2017, the new German Money Laundering Act came into force, which primarily implements the 4th European Anti-Money-Laundering Directive (EU 2015/849) into German law. Among others, the Act establishes a new...more
The London Stock Exchange published AIM Notice 47 ("Notice") on 13 October 2017 in respect of the requirement that all AIM companies with securities admitted to trading on AIM obtain a Legal Entity Identifier ("LEI") code. It...more
As noted above, the new Prospectus Regulation entered into force on 20 July 2017. Following a request for technical advice from the European Commission, the European Securities and Markets Authority ("ESMA") has published...more
On 6 July 2017, ESMA updated its Q&A relating to the Market Abuse Regulation ("MAR") which included a clarification on the definition of a "closely associated person" for the purposes of Article 3(1)(26) of MAR. Under Article...more
On 31 July 2017, a new law was adopted to further implement and ensure the effectiveness of Regulation 596/2014 on market abuse ("Market Abuse Regulation"). This new law amends the law of 2 August 2002 on the supervision of...more
On May 10, 2017, an ordinance was adopted by the French government ("Ordinance") in order to promote the use of bonds governed by French law as a financing instrument. The Ordinance seeks to modernize the French legal...more
Adopted on 8 November 2016, the Sapin II Act (Loi Sapin II) introduced a compulsory ex ante vote on remuneration policy and an ex post vote on the amount of remuneration received in accordance with the policy passed the...more
On 10 May 2017, an ordinance was adopted by the French government ("Ordinance") in order to promote the use of bonds as a financing vehicle for French issuers that represents a major step forward in the French debt capital...more
On 24 January 2017, France issued its first sovereign green bonds for an amount of €7 billion, with a maturity of 22 years and a yield at issue of 1.741 percent. The French sovereign issuance was fully allocated with total...more