-
Supported By:


Subscribe or Follow
HLS Faculty & Senior Fellows
Program on Corporate Governance Advisory Board
- Peter Atkins
- David Bell
- Kerry E. Berchem
- Richard Brand
- Daniel Burch
- Paul Choi
- Jesse Cohn
- Arthur B. Crozier
- Renata J. Ferrari
- Andrew Freedman
- Ray Garcia
- Joseph Hall
- Jason M. Halper William P. Mills
- David Millstone
- Theodore Mirvis
- Philip Richter
- Elina Tetelbaum
- Sebastian Tiller
- Marc Trevino
- Steven J. Williams
Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
New Credit Default Swap Terms to Be Implemented in September 2014
Earlier this year, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association Inc. (ISDA) published the 2014 Credit Derivatives Definitions (the 2014 Definitions). The 2014 Definitions introduce a new government bail-in Credit Event trigger for credit default swap (CDS) contracts on financial Reference Entities in non-U.S. jurisdictions and also modify the typical terms of sovereign CDS contracts in […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Derivatives, Financial Regulation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation
Tagged Banks, Credit default swaps, Derivatives, EU, Europe, Financial regulation, Foreign banks, International governance, ISDA, Restructurings, Securities regulation, Swaps, Swaps entities
Comments Off on New Credit Default Swap Terms to Be Implemented in September 2014
Nationalize the Clearinghouses!
A clearinghouse reduces counterparty risks by acting as the hub for trades amongst the largest financial institutions. For this reason, Dodd-Frank’s seventh title, the heart of the law’s regulation of OTC derivatives, requires that most derivatives trade through clearinghouses. The concentration of trades into a very small number of clearinghouses or CCPs has obvious risks. […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Academic Research, Bankruptcy & Financial Distress, Derivatives, Financial Regulation
Tagged Bailouts, Bankruptcy, CFTC, Clearing houses, Derivatives, Dodd-Frank Act, Federal Reserve, Financial regulation, Liquidation, OTC derivatives, Recovery & resolution plans, Systemic risk
Comments Off on Nationalize the Clearinghouses!
The Corporate Governance of Sovereign Wealth Funds
Initiatives of shareholder engagement must take into consideration the modern, complex nature of share ownership. Shareholders can no longer be considered as a single group, instead the shareholder base may include a range of institutional investors, hedge funds, private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds and other activist investors. There has been a significant transformation of […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Institutional Investors, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Corporate governance, Engagement, Institutional Investors, International governance, Shareholder activism, Sovereign Wealth Funds
Comments Off on The Corporate Governance of Sovereign Wealth Funds
Sovereign Shareholder Activism: How SWFs Can Engage in Corporate Governance
As the number of—and assets controlled by—sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) has increased dramatically in recent years, so too has scrutiny about how SWFs are making use of these assets. With respect to equity investments in publicly traded firms, one facet of this concern is that SWFs will become activist shareholders. This concern arises in part […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Academic Research, Institutional Investors, International Corporate Governance & Regulation
Tagged Corporate governance, Institutional Investors, International governance, Shareholder activism, Shareholder rights, Sovereign Wealth Funds
Comments Off on Sovereign Shareholder Activism: How SWFs Can Engage in Corporate Governance
Socially Responsible Firms
The desirability of corporations engaging in “socially responsible” behavior has long been hotly debated among economists, lawyers, and business experts. Two general views on corporate social responsibility (CSR) prevail in the literature. The CSR “value-enhancing view” argues that socially responsible firms, such as firms that promote efforts to help protect the environment, promote social equality, […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Academic Research, Corporate Social Responsibility, Empirical Research, Executive Compensation, HLS Research
Tagged Agency model, Corporate Social Responsibility, Executive Compensation, Management, Pay for performance, Philanthropy
Comments Off on Socially Responsible Firms
Cloud Cyber Security: What Every Director Needs to Know
There are four competing business propositions affecting most American businesses today. Think of them as four freight trains on different tracks headed for a four-way stop signal at fiber optic speed. First, with a significant potential for cost savings, American business has adopted cloud computing as an efficient and effective way to manage countless bytes […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Boards of Directors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Boards of Directors, Cybersecurity, Duty of good faith, Risk management, Risk oversight
Comments Off on Cloud Cyber Security: What Every Director Needs to Know
Revisiting American Exceptionalism
The legal rules governing businesses’ organizational choices have varied across nations along two main dimensions: the number of different forms that firms could adopt; and the extent to which firms had the contractual freedom to modify the available forms to suit their needs. Until the last quarter of the twentieth century, businesses in the U.S. […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Academic Research, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation
Tagged Corporate forms, Corporate governance, Incorporations, International governance, Legal systems
Comments Off on Revisiting American Exceptionalism
US Regulatory Outlook: The Beginning of the End
Regulatory delay is now the established norm, which continues to leave banks unsure about how to prepare for pending rulemakings and execute on strategic initiatives. With the “Too Big To Fail” (TBTF) debate about to hit the headlines again when the Government Accountability Office releases its long-awaited TBTF report, the rhetoric calling for the completion […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Banks, Basel Committee, Capital requirements, Credit exposure, Dodd-Frank Act, Federal Reserve, Financial institutions, Financial regulation, G-SIB, Leverage, Liquidity, Surcharges, Systemic risk, Too big to fail
Comments Off on US Regulatory Outlook: The Beginning of the End
2014 Mid-Year Securities Litigation Update
It almost goes without saying that the first half of 2014 brought with it the most significant development in securities litigation in decades: the U.S. Supreme Court decided Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc.—Halliburton II. In Halliburton II, the Court declined to revisit its earlier decision in Basic v. Levinson, Inc.; plaintiffs may […]
Click here to read the complete post
Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Court Cases, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement
Tagged Class actions, Delaware cases, Derivative actions, Disclosure, Extraterritoriality, Forum selection, Halliburton, Merger litigation, SEC, Securities fraud, Securities litigation, Securities regulation, Settlements, Supreme Court, U.S. federal courts
Comments Off on 2014 Mid-Year Securities Litigation Update