“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
By: Ainsley Brown The UK taxman is now using YouTube to get its message across. I mean literally the “UK Taxman” – Permanent Secretary for Tax in HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), Dave Hartnett. And what is his message. Well you guessed it, pay your taxes or else. Yes I know, that’s just a little bit too simplistic but it
By: Ainsley Brown Credit Suisse has agreed to settle allegations of insider trading in Brazil for R$19.2 million. The fine is the second largest, after the Banco Safra case of 2007, levied on a company by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil – Commissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM). The offer to settle is substantially more than Credit Suisse’s original
By: Rechtsanwalt (Attorney) Carsten Lexa, LL.M. On August 13th, 2009, I wrote an article here on Commercial Law International about the “secrets” of the US credit card business and about how the existing rules make it hard for customers to pay off their credit card dept. Now, a new Goverment proposal tries to help customers to reduce their credit card
By: Ainsley Brown Banks in London, England are set to roll out their living wills by the end of the year. The living wills are a direct consequence of the financial – bank – meltdown experienced in the UK. The pilot scheme is set for a trial run in London before being expanded to the rest of the country will see
By: Ainsley Brown Philip Morris – yes that Philip Morris – the tobacco giant is set to sue the Irish government. And, why? The substance of Philip Morris’ claim is that the new Irish law that came into force on July 1 banning the display of cigarettes in stores is anti-competitive. As a public health measure the new law was
By: Ainsley Brown Yes, you read right, Tim Hortons is back in Canada. I like most of you never knew it went anywhere. I know what you are thinking: Ainsley, you must either be playing a prank, or going crazy or were you just up late and tired and in desperate of a double double because I just brought some
By: Ainsley Brown UBS, the world´s largest wealth manager, has found itself embroiled in a diplomatic row between Washington and Bern. At issue is the interpretation of the current US-Swiss double taxation treaty and at stake is the newly inked, yet to be ratified, revised US-Swiss double taxation treaty. Does the future of the revised US-Swiss double taxation treaty depend
By Charles Wanguhu In many international forums the developed nations are always pushed to provide more aid in the fight against poverty. Several reviews on the effectiveness of aid have proved time and time again its ineffectiveness in poverty eradication. The latter has led to current aid driven projects to often try and include sustainability options in all projects undertaken.
By: Ainsley Brown The question that faces Australian securities regulators is what to do about two or more Chinese state owned enterprises together owing substantial shareholdings in an Australian company? At first blush it would appear that this is a case of China take over fear, however there is much more to the story than this. Indeed, there is a
By: Ainsley Brown The world economic down turn has had many knock on effects, many of which unexpected. It seems that bad times has the uncanny effect of making the once unthinkable, unsayable and undoable all very much possible. The Swiss banking model can be best characterized with one word: Secrecy. This don’t ask don’t tell attitude is more than