December 13, 2022
Volume XII, Number 347
December 13, 2022
– Renewed Era of Crypto Assets Growth in Hong Kong by: Jay Lee
– Division I Universities Must Be Ready for Changes to the NCAA…by: Paul V.Kelly
– U.S.Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in Case Testing Limits of…
by: Michelle E.Phillips and Christopher M.Repole
– Damages in Pre-Certification Discovery are Premature, Discovery…by: Jenniffer Cabrera
– When Chains Change, Do NFTs Stay The Same? How Hard Forks May Affect…
by: Jason H.Finger
– COVID-19: A Roadmap to Fraud Investigations: Office of Inspector…by: Stephen D.Bittinger
– DOJ Settlement with Electronic Health Records Provider Highlights…by: Ty E.Howard and Lane M.
Webster
– Update: OFCCP Plans to Disclose EEO-1 Data for Non-Objecting…by: Abby M.
Warren
– Increasing US Enforcement Action for Sanctions Violations by Crypto…by: Hannah Laming and Adam Klauder
– DOJ Antitrust Division and HHS OIG Enter into Partnership to Increase…by: Diane Hazel
– Can Discovery Be Compelled from a Party? Possession, Custody, Control…by: Kathryn C.
Cole
– Weekly Bankruptcy Alert December 13, 2022 by: Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights
– All Things Chemical® Podcast: TSCA Regulation of Articles: The Saga…by: Lynn L.Bergeson
– Energy & Sustainability M&A Activity — December 2022 by: Thomas R.Burton, III and Sahir Surmeli
– Energy & Sustainability IP Updates — December 2022 by: Brad M.
Scheller
– SEC Reopens Proposal on Stock Buyback Rules by: Erin Reeves McGinnis
– Chips Chatter: December 5-12, 2022 by: Pablo E.Carrillo and Ludmilla L.Kasulke
– How may behavioral advertising trackers do websites deploy currently? by: David A.Zetoony
– FRB Proposes Climate-Related Financial Risk Management Principles by: Daniel Meade
– Energy & Sustainability Litigation Updates — December 2022 by: Jacob H.Hupart
– Cross Border Recognition, 25 years on: the view from each side of the…by: Michelle N.
Saney
– A New Era of Technology in the Private Markets by: Louis Lehot and Christopher Converse
– New York City Postpones Enforcement of Automated Employment Decision…by: Simone R.D.Francis
– New Law Seeks To Curtail Coerced Debts by: Keith Paul Bishop
– Republican SEC Commissioners Continue to Criticize Proposed Climate…by: Jacob H.Hupart
December 12, 2022
– Raters gonna rate…but there’s a bright side! by: Daniel B.
Guggenheim
– SEC Awards More than $20 Million to Whistleblower by: Mary Jane Wilmoth
– Estate Planning for Football Season Ticket Holders by: Katherine M.Szymanski and Rebecca K.Wrock
– American Hospital Association Urges DEA to Issue Special Registration…by: Nathaniel M.Lacktman
– EPA Announces $25.7 Million in Grants to Support Water Systems in…by: EPA
– Weekly IRS Roundup December 5 – December 9, 2022 by: Tax Practice Group McDermott Will Emery
– CMS Announces Strategy on Value-Based Payments for Specialty Care by: Anahita Anvari
– DOL Proposes Self-Correction Option and Other Changes to Voluntary…
by: Justin S Alex
– The City of Los Angeles’ Fair Work Week Ordinance Requires…by: Tomi Oshita
– Recent Developments in Telehealth Enforcement by: Sara Helene Shanti and Danielle Vrabie
– ESG INVESTING AND PROXY VOTING: DOL’S NEW FINAL RULE by: Kristina M.Zanotti and Ruth E.Delaney
– IN A NEW YORK MINUTE, Telemarketing Laws Are Changing! by: Angelika Munger
– More Places, Less Spaces: California is Driving Down Development Costs by: Amanda S.Lee
– Bereavement Leave Becomes Mandatory in the Golden State by: Kaleb N.Berhe
– New Year Brings New Laws for Illinois Employers by: Mikela T.
Sutrina and Katherine H.
Oblak
– Decision in U.S.v.Holland by: Gabriel L.Imperato
– Top Five Labor Law Developments for November 2022 by: Jonathan J.Spitz and Richard F.Vitarelli
– “Cold-Pressed Juice” Lawsuit Permanently Dismissed by: Food and Drug Law at Keller and Heckman
– USPTO Releases New Guidelines Shortening the Response Deadline in…by: Luna M.
Samman
– ‘No Exit’: SEC Sanctions Investment Adviser for Impeding…by: Peter D.Hutcheon
– TradeTalk China: December 2 – December 9, 2022 by: Pablo E.Carrillo and Ludmilla L.Kasulke
– $10.3 Million in Grants Awarded to Improve the Health of Long Island…by: EPA
– RE-STRUC: Tax Changes as of 2023 by: Thomas van der Vliet and Louisa van Isselmuden
– The CAC Assessment Collection – Part 2: What Must Be Done Before…by: Amigo L.Xie and Dan Wu
– Here We Go Again: Lesser Prairie-Chicken Re-Listed Under the…
by: Karma B.Brown and Linda Trees
– What’s more common: opt-in, opt-out, or notice cookie banners? by: David A.Zetoony
– An Unstoppable Force Meets an Immovable Object: Microsoft to Fight…by: Jonathan Rubin
– Who Qualifies As An Expert Witness? by: Keith Paul Bishop
December 11, 2022
December 10, 2022
– Are Loans Securities? by: Leah Edelboim
– Fund Finance Credit Availability in 2023: Not Just Banks by: Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
– Fund Finance Credit Availability Still Locked In by: Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
– Shanghai Pudong Court Issues Preliminary Injunction in Chinese World…
by: Aaron Wininger
– Caution Advised for Language in Employment Settlement and Severance…by: Arthur Cunningham
– New EU Directive Requires Mandatory ESG Reporting by: Bruce White and Richard E.Glaze Jr.
Renewed Era of Crypto Assets Growth in Hong Kong
Recently, Hong Kong, through its Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, pronounced a Policy Statement on Development of Virtual Assets (“VA”) in Hong Kong (the “Policy Statement”), which sets out the government’s vision and next steps to help grow Hong Kong’s VA sector again.Hong Kong hopes to develop “a vibrant sector and ecosystem” for VA in the future.
The positions set forth in the Policy Statement are widely welcomed by market participants, who hope it will attract more talented crypto-related businesses back to Hong Kong.
The government also recognizes the potential of “distributed ledger technology” and “Web 3.0” to become the future of “finance and commerce” industries.It seems to envision that, with proper regulation, these technologies will enhance efficiency and transparency in the industries.
As key highlights of the Policy Statement, Hong Kong will explore a few pilot projects to assess “the technological benefits produced by virtual assets and their further applications in the financial markets”.A couple of noteworthy projects that the government intends to test include:
Green bond tokenization: The Hong Kong government’s green bond issuance can be tokenized for institutional investors to purchase them.
e-HKD (Hong Kong Central Bank Digital Currency (“CBDC”)): The government sees e-HKD as “the potential backbone and anchor bridging legal tender and VA” which may help the financial market with price stability and confidence instillation.
Green bond tokenization
Tokenization of bonds or other debt capital markets products may improve the efficiency and reduce the time and cost of related issuance and settlement processes significantly.It is known that the government, along with the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre, successfully developed “two prototypes (utilizing ‘permissioned’ and ‘permissionless’ blockchain) to concept-test the use of distributed ledger technology to streamline green bond retail issuance”.It is currently known that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the de-facto central bank in Hong Kong, is working on a pilot project tokenizing Hong Kong government’s green bond issuance which may help facilitate developments of tokenized securities market in Hong Kong.
If tokenized green bonds are successfully issued by the government, it may open doors for similar future issuances of not just green bonds but also other conventional bonds in tokenized form.
e-HKD
Cryptocurrencies or other VAs cannot currently serve as legal tender in Hong Kong.However, the government and the regulators are exploring a launch of the retail Central Bank Digital Currency, so called e-HKD.e-HKD may have a big potential to make payments more efficient and much faster.
The significance and value of e-HKD may lie in its potential to serve as the “backbone and anchor bridging legal tender and VA” and therefore may create the price stability and confidence in digital or crypto currencies which are needed to facilitate “more innovations around security token offerings based on different types of assets” in the future..
