Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

MD&A Disclosure and the Firm’s Ability to Continue as a Going Concern

In January 2012, the Financial Accounting Standards Board decided by a narrow margin of 4-3 not to require management to perform an assessment of the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern. By May 2012, the FASB reconsidered this requirement and in June 2013 issued an exposure draft that mandates going concern disclosures as […]

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Enhancing the Promise of Exclusive Forum Clauses

The multiplicity of cases brought on behalf of the same stockholder group (or as derivative actions) against the same defendants, based on the same conduct and asserting the same fiduciary duty claims is now well documented. The benefits of consolidating such litigation in a single forum have also been well established. Most such litigation takes […]

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The Costs and Benefits of Mandatory Securities Regulation

There is a long-standing debate across law, economics and finance regarding the justifications for a mandatory disclosure regime of the type exemplified by US securities law, and a related literature on the empirical question of whether mandatory securities regulation increases the value of firms (i.e. whether the benefits of regulation exceed the compliance costs). In […]

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Exit as Governance

Traditional theories of blockholder governance have focused primarily on blockholder intervention in management decisions. However, recent theories posit that blockholders can govern firms even when they have no intervention power. These theories view blockholders as informed traders who control management through “exit,” i.e., selling a firm’s stock based on private information (Admati and Pfleiderer 2009, […]

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Central European Distribution Corporation’s Chapter 11 Plan Incorporates Dutch Auction

On May 13, 2013, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware confirmed a prepackaged Chapter 11 plan of reorganization in the case of Central European Distribution Corporation (CEDC) [1] that incorporated an unmodified reverse Dutch auction. A reverse Dutch auction is a type of auction employed when a single buyer accepts bids from […]

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The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism

We recently completed an empirical study, The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism, that tests the empirical validity of a claim that has been playing a central role in debates on corporate governance – the claim that interventions by activist shareholders, and in particular activist hedge funds, have an adverse effect on the long-term interests […]

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“Cowboy Company”

When people think of Tahoe, they may ponder “Tahoe, oh—skiing, the Lake, maybe golf or gambling. Heck, let’s go.” But today, well, let’s switch it up and talk about the Old West and Tahoe aglow, back in the day. This is a fitting place to do just that. The Ponderosa Ranch, from Bonanza, was just […]

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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Financial Regulation, Practitioner Publications, Regulators Materials, Speeches & Testimony | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on “Cowboy Company”

Remuneration Regulation in the European Financial Services Industry

The move toward stricter regulation of remuneration in the financial services industry in the European Union has resulted in a confusing web of overlapping European Directives and local EU Member State law and regulation, each of which seeks to place limits on remuneration. This post aims to assist in navigating the new European labyrinth by […]

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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Executive Compensation, Financial Regulation, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Remuneration Regulation in the European Financial Services Industry

Basel Committee Updates Framework for Assessing Equity Surcharge

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (the “BCBS”) [1] recently issued a revised framework (the “Revised G-SIB Framework”) for assessing a common equity surcharge on certain designated global systemically important banks (“G-SIBs”) [2] that updates and replaces the framework for assessing the G-SIB capital surcharge issued by the BCBS in November 2011 (the “Prior G-SIB […]

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CFTC Issues Guidance Regarding Cross-Border Swaps

On July 12, 2013, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) approved the issuance of an interpretive guidance and policy statement (the “Guidance”) regarding the cross-border application of the swaps provisions of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”). Although the CFTC may continue to refine its […]

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