Tag Archives: SEC

Understanding the forces that govern firms’ auditor choice decisions has long attracted attention from regulators, academics, and practitioners. High-quality auditors can provide greater assurance of the credibility of financial reporting. This improved assurance mitigates agency costs arising from adverse selection and moral hazard between firms and their capital providers, and in turn improves resource allocation and contracting… Read More »

In its “I.G.I.” decision of 30.1.2020 (C-394/18), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that the European creditor protection rules for divisions do not prevent creditors of the company being divided from filing an actio pauliana[1] in accordance with national law. We think this decision is not correct. The I.G.I. decision involved the partial… Read More »

The low-carbon transition is likely to induce drastic changes in our economies that will affect how we produce and consume. Changes in the “real” economy will almost certainly impact the financial structures built upon it, including the balance sheets of states, households, and corporations. The assets that compose these balance sheets may dramatically fall in… Read More »

The following is an edited comment letter that was submitted by Bernard S. Sharfman and James R. Copland to the U.S. Department of Labor with respect to the Department’s proposed rule, Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights (RIN 1210-AC03) The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) requires a fiduciary to… Read More »

A definition of materiality offers preparers and users of financial statements guidance about what are unimportant (immaterial) misrepresentations and what are important (material) misrepresentations. The U.S. Supreme Court defines information as material if there is “a substantial likelihood that the disclosure of the omitted fact would have been viewed by the reasonable investor as having significantly altered the ‘total mix’… Read More »

Corporate alliances and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are the alternative strategies for external growth that expand firms’ boundaries. A recent report by KPMG suggests that about half of the responding CEOs said they plan to form a new alliance to enhance their corporate performance and growth, while four out of ten plan to make a new acquisition.… Read More »

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC or Corporation) has recently made news in typical Washington, DC fashion: a fight over power.  A conflict between the FDIC Chairperson, a Trump Administration holdover, and the three members of the FDIC board – appointed by Democratic Administrations – over bank merger review protocols led to the Chairperson’s resignation.[1]  Accordingly, the… Read More »