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

UK Announces Consultation on Bank Levy

In his Budget statement, delivered on 22 June, 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the UK will introduce a tax based on banks’ balance sheets from 1 January, 2011, to be known as “bank levy”. Once fully in place this tax is expected to generate around £2.5 billion annually. A consultation has now […]

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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Different Approaches to Corporate Reporting Regulation

In the paper, Different Approaches to Corporate Reporting Regulation: How Jurisdictions Differ and Why, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, I discuss differences in countries’ approaches to reporting regulation and explore reasons why they exist in the first place and why they are likely to persist. After delineating various regulatory choices and discussing […]

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Review of the UK Takeover Code

At the beginning of this month, the UK Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (the Panel) announced a wide-ranging review of a number of fundamental principles of UK takeover regulation contained in the Panel’s City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the Code). Responses are required by 27 July 2010. This review has been prompted in part […]

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Posted in International Corporate Governance & Regulation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Why Stewardship is Proving Elusive for Institutional Investors

As the dominant owners of listed companies in many developed markets, institutional investors have been under increasing pressure to act as responsible shareholders. In the UK, where institutions own more than 70% of the stock market, a Stewardship Code has been developed to encourage pension funds, insurance companies, and their asset managers to monitor and […]

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Posted in Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

What to Expect from Dodd-Frank in the 2011 Proxy Season

Editor’s Note: Holly Gregory is a Corporate Partner specializing in corporate governance at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. This post is based on an extract from a Weil Gotshal Briefing; the complete article is available here. Other posts relating to the Dodd-Frank Act are available here. The new requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act and current […]

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Posted in Corporate Elections & Voting, Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Boards of Banks

In our paper, Boards of Banks, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we assemble the most complete data set on boards of banks to date. Our data allow us to draw a detailed picture of bank board composition up to and including the crisis period. The data reveal a number of new empirical […]

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Posted in Academic Research, Banking & Financial Institutions, Boards of Directors, Empirical Research | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Upsizing and Downsizing Your IPO

The reds have been printed; the deal is on the road; and the champagne is on ice. Now, all that is left is for the IPO investors to step up and buy the stock. It’s a tempting moment to relax — but an experienced deal lawyer knows better. This is the time to start preparing […]

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Posted in Practitioner Publications, Securities Regulation | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Upsizing and Downsizing Your IPO

Erosion of the Fiduciary Duty Requirement in Insider Trading Actions

Every decade or so, a new wave of interest in prosecuting insider trading emerges. We see this now. Just as the tides of interest in insider trading ebb and flow, so too do the contours of the offense itself. Given the present environment, of course, one would expect regulators to step up insider-trading enforcement, and […]

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Posted in Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

How to Pay a Banker

Editor’s Note: This post is Lucian Bebchuk’s most recent op-ed in his column series titled “The Rules of the Game,” written for the international association of newspapers Project Syndicate, which can be found here. This op-ed builds on his article Regulating Bankers’ Pay, co-authored with Holger Spamann, which is available here. The United States’ Federal […]

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Posted in Banking & Financial Institutions, Executive Compensation, Op-Eds & Opinions | Tagged , | 3 Comments

A New World for Whistleblowers

Section 922 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into law by President Obama on July 21, creates an elaborate new regime of financial incentives to encourage whistleblowers to come forward to the SEC with information about securities law violations. An unfortunate likely effect of this new regime, however, may be […]

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Posted in Legislative & Regulatory Developments, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement | Tagged , , | 2 Comments