“Commercial Awareness Is Global.”
By: Ainsley Brown When an industry approaches being worth close to a trillion dollars it can no longer be considered a passing fancy or fad – Islamic banking and finance (IBF) is real and is as much a part of the global financial system as “conventional” finance. It is this realization that has prompted Australia to conduct a review of
By: Ainsley Brown The investment banker who turned down €7.9 million in severance to sue for over €10 million has won his case against the French bank Société Générale (SocGen). The banker in question, Mr. Raphael Geys, was the head of SocGen’s London based European fixed income financial sales division until 2007 when he was given the sack. Mr. Geys
By: Eran D. Grossman, Esq. More problems are on the horizon between government regulators and local U.S. banks (smaller, regional and/or community banks) over how to handle falling commercial property values. Currently, banks are holding roughly $1.9 billion in commercial real estate loans, which equals about a quarter of all outstanding loans, according to Moody’s. The values of such loans
By: Ainsley Brown Judge David Hammerschlag – German for hammer blow – does just that, delivers a hammer blow to the investment bank JP Morgan. In the case of JP Morgan Australia Limited v. Consolidated Minerals Limited, Judge Hammer Blow , sorry I just couldn’t resist, I mean Judge Hammerschlag has ruled that the fees the bank charged Consolidated Minerals
By: Ainsley Brown Wachovia bank has agreed to pay $160 million to US authorities in order to settle charges brought against it. The bank was accused by the US Justice Department and banking regulators of not having sufficient controls in place to prevent Mexican drug cartels from laundering millions of dollars through the bank using exchange houses –casas de cambio
By: Ainsley Brown What’s a few million euros between friends, right? SocGen – Sociètè Gènèrale – one of France’s oldest and most respected banks is being sued in the English High Court by one of its former managing directors. Raphael Geys, the investment banker in question, was until November 2007 when his employment was terminated a managing director at SocGen
By: Ainsley Brown This forms part of the Middle Passage Law Series on Law Is Cool. American International Group, better know by its acronym AIG, it seems these days can rarely catch a break. It just seems negative news follows negative news for this company. This time the negative news for this too big to fail company – deeply wounded
By: Ainsley Brown The stage was for a very interesting court battle in Australia pitting advisor against former client; at stake the fees that the advisor could charge. While the case remains interesting the deep probing spotlight that it promised on investment banking fees alas may not materialize. JP Morgan Chase, the investment bank is suing its former client Consolidated
By: Carsten Lexa 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 debt. On November 3rd, 2009, I wrote in a the second article about a Goverment proposal regarding new legislation for
By: Ainsley Brown Islamic banking and finance (IBF) is a subject that I have longed to blog about here on Commercial Law International and after much procrastination here is a brief commentary. And by brief I mean brief – don’t get me wrong this is by no means all I have to say about the subject, far from it. I