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This article provides an overview of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent approval of a package of rulemakings and interpretations designed to enhance the quality and transparency of investors’ relationships with investment advisers and broker-dealers.

The article provides legal analysis for and historical context of the requirements of the SEC’s adopted rules, Regulation Best Interest and Form CRS in addition to the two separate interpretations under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Standard of Conduct for Investment Advisers; and the Broker-Dealer Exclusion from the Definition of Investment Adviser.

The SEC’s adopted regulatory package does not adopt a uniform fiduciary standard for broker-dealers and investment advisers but instead promulgates legal requirements and mandated disclosures in order to conform to the SEC’s perceived expectations for reasonable investors.

Investment advisers and broker-dealers should consult with their legal counsel in assessing how and to what extent the new regulatory package is applicable to them.

This article provides practical guidance from lawyers who have extensive experience with the Investment Company Act, Investment Advisers Act, and the Securities Acts.

To provide an overview of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) recently proposed rulemaking package relating to standards of conduct for investment professionals. The three proposals included: interpretation regarding the standard of conduct of investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940; Form CRS which both registered investment advisers and registered broker-dealers would have to provide to retail investors; and proposed regulation best interest.

Reviews and summarizes the three individual proposals.

The SEC has proposed this rulemaking package in order to meet three goals: enhance retail investor protection and decision making, preserve investor choice and cost, and raise retail investor awareness of whether they are doing business with a registered financial professional. The SEC is looking for feedback, particularly from retail investors, on whether these proposals would achieve the SEC’s goals.

Summarizes the three proposals in a manner that provides insight into how investment advisers and broker-dealers would be required to conduct business with retail investors if the proposals are adopted in the current form.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a legal analysis of ijara sukuk in Iran which are expected to be issued in 2009. It reviews the proposed structure and the transactions entered into in respect of the sukuks and the legal engineering of those transactions to make them compliant with Shari'a. In so doing, this paper explores the rights and obligations that arise from the contracts on which the transactions in ijara sukuk are based.

The analysis offered by this paper has both theoretical and doctrinal orientations. At a theoretical level, this paper concentrates on the traditional contract of lease, as well as the lease‐to‐purchase vehicle. At a doctrinal level, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the complications embedded in the ijara sukuk and the need to rationalize and harmonize various aspects of Islamic banking and project financing.

It is argued that, while the new sukuk structure complies with the requirements of Shari'a requirements against riba and gharar, it goes against a well‐established expectation of increasing the level of efficiency of the banking and financial sector.

This paper provides an original insight into understanding ijara sukuk in Iran. It also contributes to the literature on Islamic finance according to Shi'i jurisprudence.

This paper documents the EU integration process using the uneven and combined development framework. Because capitalist social relations are territorially defined and politically built, unevenness between countries is not unconnected with that within countries and both involve antagonism between capital and labor. This is manifest in the ‘state form’ of the EU and its anti-democratic tendencies: public institutions at the community level play a major role in reinforcing unevenness in favour of leading countries, in both the productive and financial spheres.

To summarize the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Examinations’s recently published 2021 examination priorities.

Features short summaries of select aspects of the SEC Division of Examinations’ recently published 2021 examination priorities.

The SEC’s priorities for 2021 examinations include retail investor protection; information security; operational resiliency; financial technology and innovation, including digital assets; anti-money laundering; LIBOR transition, and selected areas for registered investment advisers.

Firms should consider the SEC examination priorities as they conduct their annual reviews of policies, procedures and business activities. Where firms observe deficiencies in their own practices, adjustments should be made before they find themselves the subject of an SEC investigation, examination or enforcement action.

Practical guidance for investment advisers, investment companies, municipal advisors, and broker-dealers from experienced broker-dealer, securities and investment management lawyer.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the causes and circumstances of what has become systemic corruption in Vietnam, and the reasons why the moves taken by the regime to combat it have been largely ineffective so far.

The paper offers a commentary based on published secondary sources.

The paper concludes that the immediate prospects for any substantial reduction in the level of corruption in Vietnam appear to be bleak. Endemic corruption, especially in the form of elite rent-seeking, is likely to remain strong. However, the paper sketches two more possible scenarios on anti-corruption prospects in the country for the intermediate future.

The paper relies on secondary sources in providing a macro-level discussion of corruption in Vietnam.

To examine what to expect from Chair Gary Gensler’s SEC and the new Biden presidential administration following Chair Gensler’s U.S. Senate confirmation on April 14, 2021.

Reviews past SEC Chair Jay Clayton’s legacy and Chair Gensler’s prior regulatory actions and focus, and outlines Chair Gensler’s expected initiatives, including a heightened focus on cryptocurrency regulation, investigation of COVID-19-related fraud, and ESG and climate change disclosure.

This change will bring forth a Democratic majority at the SEC which, in turn, suggests that the Commission will change its current emphasis on capital formation to focus more on investor protection, rules required by the Dodd-Frank Act, inspections, examinations, and enforcement

Firms should examine their compliance programs in anticipation of heightened advocacy for investor protection; an increased focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, as well as ESG disclosures with an emphasis on climate change; and an increase in inspections and examinations which will drive more enforcement in the fund industry, as well as increases in initiatives regarding transparency, additional disclosures, and investor protection. Organizations will also benefit by reexamining their existing compliance programs with the advice of counsel as a mechanism to mitigate the risk of potential securities laws violations.

Practical guidance from experienced securities enforcement and litigation lawyers.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of foreign capital inflows and economic growth on stock market capitalization in Pakistan by using the annual time series data from the period of 1976 to 2011.

The autoregressive distributed lag bound testing cointegration approach, the error correction model and the rolling window estimation procedures have been performed to analyze the long run, short run and behavior of coefficients, respectively.

Results indicate that foreign direct investment (FDI), workers’ remittances and economic growth have significant positive relationship with the stock market capitalization in long run as well as in short run. Results of the dynamic ordinary least square and the fully modified ordinary least square suggest that the initial results of long-run coefficients are robust. Results of variance decomposition test show the bidirectional causal relationship of FDI and economic growth with stock market capitalization. However, unidirectional causal relationship is found in between workers’ remittances and stock market capitalization.

It is suggested that in Pakistan, investors can make their investment decisions through keeping an eye on the direction of the considered foreign capital inflows and economic growth.

This paper makes a unique contribution to the literature with reference to Pakistan, being a pioneering attempt to investigate the effects of foreign capital inflows and economic growth on stock market by using long time series data and applying more rigorous techniques.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.