A lot (perhaps too much) has been written about the wider implications of problems originating in the US associated with the practice of providing so-called sub-prime mortgages to high risk borrowers with poor credit histories. There is also plenty of speculation about the potential exposures for directors, banks and professional advisers. We have already witnessed some very high profile departures, including Stan O'Neal, former chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch and Citigroup's Charles Prince, who recently "retired" following the US banking giant's announcement that Citigroup faced an US$11 billion write-down. There has, however, been very little detailed examination of how claims against directors could be made to stick and what defences might be open to them. In this article, we use the sub-prime mortgage crisis (or more accurately the structured finance crisis) as the background for an examination of directors' duties and liability exposures....
Specific Questions relating to this article should be addressed directly to the author.
On 1 September 2010 the High Court handed down its much anticipated decision in the appeal from Re Octaviar Ltd (No 7) [2009] QCA 282. The High Court, consisting of Chief Justice French, and Justices Gummow, Hayne, Kiefel and Bell, unanimously dismissed the appeal in Public Trustee of Queensland v Fortress Credit Corporation (Aus) 11 Pty Ltd [2010] HCA 29.
A Court of Appeal finding late last year that a director breached his director’s duty by selling an asset in a failing business when he knew that the company would be unable to meet the ensuing GST obligation has since filtered through into IRD practice.
Many West European and US companies have thinned out their ranks of middle management in the never-ending pursuit of shareholder value. A China project is likely to be more time intensive and involved (and therefore expensive) than the foreign company initially forecasts. For this reason many foreign investors in China face difficulties in assembling a successful business project team to implement the project. Part I discusses the assembling of an effective in-house team.
A decree on issuance of Government bonds, Government-guaranteed bonds and local administrations' bonds has been drafted ("Draft Decree") to provide guidelines on implementation of the Law on Public Debt Management adopted by the National Assembly of Vietnam in June 2009.
Vietnam has an urgent need to upgrade and develop its infrastructure. However, having attained middle income status, the nation is likely to receive less official development assistance in the coming years.
Title X of the Act is known as the "Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010." This portion of the legislation establishes the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (the "Bureau"), an independent bureau within the U.S. Federal Reserve to regulate consumer financial products and services that are offered or provided for use by consumers primarily for personal, family or household purposes, or that are delivered, offered or provided in connection with a consumer financial product or service.
This "Alert" summarizes Subtitle H of Title IX, designated "Municipal Securities," of the Act. References herein are made to sections 975 through 979 of Subtitle H.
The Act includes "bounty hunter" provisions to increase the voluntary reporting of securities and commodities violations. The U.S. Congress did so by significantly enhancing whistleblower rewards and protections.
Section 1075 of Title X of the Act, is also known as the "Durbin amendment." With the Durbin amendment, Congress has instituted the first federal regulation of interchange fees (i.e., fees charged by a cardholder's, or "issuing," bank to a merchant's, or "acquiring," bank) on debit card purchases.
