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Effectively delivering notices under commercial contracts is not as straight-forward as it maybe ought to be, with different contracts requiring different methods of delivery, different content and different timelines. Often these boiler-plate provisions are not treated with the same vigour as the commercial provisions of a contract in negotiations, meaning they can be left containing ambiguity. And this ambiguity will also often come to light at very worrisome times, like where a default notice is being delivered to close out transactions.

Continue Reading On Notice: developments in delivery of notices under the ISDA Master Agreement
International flags

The underlying rationale for emissions trading is that derivatives could save the planet or, at the least, could be an influence for good.

Emissions trading is an asset class which is purely a creature of regulation, and that leads to many intricacies, nuances, and traps for the unwary, which are not found in other types of product or derivative. Interest in emissions for trading, and as underlying assets for OTC derivatives and structured products, is on the rise again. Please join a Mayer Brown webinar where Mayer Brown partners, Edmund Parker (Derivatives & Structured Products) and Tim Baines (Environment & Climate Change), based in London, and Matt Kluchenek, based in the US, will discuss key issues including:

  • The underlying asset: relevance of the Paris Agreement; the COPs; and EU, UK and US climate change action initiatives;
  • Emissions trading and crediting regimes, including the voluntary market;
  • ISDA, EFET, and IETA documentation;
  • Regulatory treatment of emissions products in the US (i.e., as Swaps, Futures or Forwards).

Register here.

Key Event Information

Date & Time
Tuesday, September 26, 2023
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT
Europe
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. BST
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. CEST

Printing Euro banknotes

Whether to address funding diversification objectives, liquidity management plans, risk-based capital concerns, or other goals, many issuers consider establishing repackaging programs. These programs can take many forms but generally raise a number of structuring and legal considerations that should be addressed early in the planning process. Join our experts in an upcoming webinar discussion of repack programs where, in addition to providing some background on market developments, we will discuss the following:

  • Compartment/multi-series vehicles or series LLCs and choice of jurisdiction,
  • Rule 144A and Regulation S programs and investor qualifications,
  • Investment Company Act and commodity pool issues,
  • US and European risk retention requirements in capital relief transactions,
  • Emissions Certificates repackagings,
  • Addressing the Volcker Rule, and
  • Swap and other derivatives related considerations.

Key Event Information

Date & Time
Thursday, September 7, 2023
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. EDT

Register here.

Night View of Capital Hill

In the midst of multiple NAIC initiatives aimed at radically changing the regulatory treatment of insurer investments, the chair of the NAIC’s Financial Condition (E) Committee released a strongly-worded memo on August 3 which looks to be a game-changer that could well lead to a major change of direction for those initiatives. This unexpected and welcome development will be a major focus of discussion at the NAIC Summer National Meeting in Seattle from August 12-16. During an upcoming session, Mayer Brown partners will discuss the holistic framework for regulation of insurer investments outlined in the “E” Committee chair’s memo, will report on the reaction to it at the National Meeting, and will address some of the potential impacts on insurers and capital markets.

Key Event Information

Tuesday, August 22, 2023
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. EDT

Register here.

Stock finance business

Today, Friday 30 June 2023, is a momentous day in financial markets, being the last day on which rates based on the London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBORs) will be published. LIBOR is a key reference rate that has underpinned hundreds of trillions of dollars of assets over the last five decades.

Continue Reading End of the road for LIBOR
Night View of Capital Hill

Banking organizations looking to reduce the amount of risk-based regulatory capital required to support residential mortgage loan portfolios can use synthetic securitization to convert the capital treatment of their exposures from wholesale or retail exposures to securitization exposures. In a new Legal Update, we discuss how regulatory capital requirements impact banking organizations that hold portfolios of residential mortgage loans and how synthetic securitization can help mitigate the capital charge associated with these portfolios.

Read the full update here.

Female doctor surprised with stock market ratios growth

Complex products continue to be a regulatory cause célèbre, drawing attention from the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”). FINRA launched a targeted examination of practices relating to options account opening, ongoing options account supervision and customer communications in connection with options in August 2021. Earlier this month, FINRA provided updated guidance in the form of questions for firms to consider as they review and evaluate their supervisory systems for options account activity of both self-directed and full service brokerage account customers. The questions focus on firms’ processes for approving customers to trade options, including related information gathering, options trading disclosures and ongoing supervision of options accounts.

Read our latest Legal Update on these topics here.

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In Macquarie Bank Limited v Phelan Energy Group Limited [2022] EWHC 2616 (Comm) the High Court considered what must be contained in a notice of failure to pay or notice of an early termination date under the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement for it to be effective. The findings will be of interest to parties considering closing out derivative transactions.

Continue Reading You Have Been Served: Requirements for a Valid Failure to Pay Notice and Early Termination Date Notice
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On Thursday 15 December, Mayer Brown’s Capital Markets team in Germany invites you to an ad hoc webinar on the proposed EU Capital Markets Union package, including the Listing Act and amendments to OTC Derivatives Clearing in the EU.

On 7 December 2022, the European Commission proposed a host of measures designed to facilitate further development of the EU’s capital markets, in particular by:

  1. alleviating – through a new Listing Act – the administrative burden for companies of all sizes, in particular SMEs, so that they can better access public funding by offering their securities to the public and listing securities on stock exchanges;
  2. making EU clearing services more attractive and resilient, supporting the EU’s open strategic autonomy and preserving financial stability within the EU; and
  3. harmonizing certain corporate insolvency rules across the EU, making them more efficient and helping to promote cross-border investment.

Register here.