On 6 October 2023, the FCA updated its webpage ‘Cryptoasset AML/CTF regime: feedback on good and poor quality applications’ by generally updating the page and adding registration statistics. The FCA has been the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervisor of UK cryptoasset businesses since 10 January 2020. In the last 12 months it has determined 79 applications. Five of these applications have been registered. The remainder have either been rejected, withdrawn, or refused.
Brazil’s draft Sustainable Taxonomy Action Plan (the Action Plan), prepared by the Ministry of Finance, is currently under public consultation and receiving contributions and comments for its improvement. The deadline for taking part in the public consultation is October 20, 2023.
The development of a sustainable taxonomy seeks to address Brazil’s main environmental and social challenges, taking into account its commitments, objectives and priority plans. Consisting of a classification system that defines, on a scientific basis, activities, assets and/or categories … Read the rest
On September 29, 2023, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued new agency-wide guidelines regarding how its employees will address cases in which Red Notices and Diffusions.
The complete guidelines are found here, and the most relevant provisions (in my estimation) are listed in our last blog post.
In part one of this series, we referenced the fact that some of the new provisions would likely be more impactful in a practical sense than others. The provisions that are … Read the rest
On 27 September 2023, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) co-published a report on the landscape of information and communication technology (ICT) of third-party providers (TTP) in the EU.
The report sets out the results of a high-level analysis, carried out by the ESAs together with Member State competent authorities with the objective of getting a preliminary overview of the provision of ICT services to EU financial entities by ICT TTPs. The analysis was performed … Read the rest
The property insurance policy calls for a court to appoint umpires. Parties typically file a petition to appoint an umpire and then a request to confirm the appraisal award after the appraisal panel renders a decision. A reader of this blog asked me to comment on the following ruling from a recent Florida appellate case:1
… Read the restState Farm Florida Insurance Company (‘State Farm’) appeals the final judgments entered in four related cases that confirmed appraisal awards set by a
A pair of malic acid decisions recently issued by Judge Coleman in the Northern District Court of Illinois reaffirmed that the statements “natural flavors with other natural flavors” and “no artificial flavors” receive different treatment under state false advertising laws, at least in that district.
In Boss v. Kraft Heinz Co., the plaintiffs alleged that Kraft Heinz’s MiO water-flavoring products contained synthetic malic acid, rendering false and misleading the claim “natural flavors with other natural flavors” on the products’ … Read the rest
The ITAT recently dismissed an appeal and slammed Cognizant India Private Limited (“Cognizant India”) for what it perceived as using a colorable device to evade taxes during its INR 190 billion share buyback exercise.
Cognizant (Mauritius) Limited (“Cognizant Mauritius”) and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporations USA (“Cognizant USA”) held around 76% and 22% stake in Cognizant India respectively. The remaining 2% minor shareholding was also held by USA based entities.
In the year 2016, Cognizant … Read the rest
Since 2020, most retirement funds have been faced with a situation where participating employers have failed to comply with section 13A of the Pension Funds Act, 1956 (PFA), by either underpaying employer or member contributions or not paying at all. The non-payment of contributions attracts late payment interest in terms of section 13(7) of the PFA.
It is against this background that the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) repealed Regulation 33, which governed payment of pension fund contributions and … Read the rest