July 16, 2012
SEC’s Chief Accountant Publishes Final IFRS Work Plan Report
On Friday, the SEC’s Office of Chief Accountant issued its final IFRS work plan report. Since the SEC has no timeframe now to decide whether to switch to IFRS – and since its a Presidential election year – it’s truly uncertain when that decision will be made.
Sleeper Alert: CFTC’s New Rule Might Force You to Get Special Board Approval for Interest-Rate Swaps
As Nate Endrud blogged last week, the CFTC has approved its final rule on the so-called “end-user exception” to Dodd-Frank’s mandatory clearing requirement applicable to swaps required to be cleared (roughly, standardized swaps). Under the exception, as provided by the Act, a swap counterparty may elect not to clear a swap if the counterparty:
(i) Is not a “financial entity” (e.g., swap dealer, major swap participant, investment fund, bank, or pension plan);
(ii) Is using the swap to “hedge or mitigate commercial risk,” as further defined; and
(iii) Provides certain information along with the swap to a swap data repository or the CFTC.
I don’t think many companies realize they are going to need special board approval to deal with run-of-the-mill interest rate swaps – and this could be applicable before you know it.
Transcript: “How to Cope with the M&A Litigation Explosion”
We have posted the transcript for our recent DealLawyers.com webcast: “How to Cope with the M&A Litigation Explosion.”
Society of Corporate Secretaries Annual Conference: Fun in DC
Back from this year’s conference – in my hometown – and in keeping with last year’s tradition of posting a picture illustrating some class, below are Martin Bischoff and Laurent Rouyres of Labrador at Friday’s Newseum event (here are conference notes from Davis Polk’s Ning Chiu):
– Broc Romanek