Publication
Government Investigations in Singapore 2025
We have contributed the Singapore chapter of Getting the Deal Through, Government Investigations 2025.
Author:
Global | Publication | September 2016
A bill amending the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA), the Competition Act and federal cooperatives and not-for-profit legislation was tabled for first reading in the Canadian parliament on September 28, 2016. The changes proposed (the Amendments) are intended to ensure that Canada continues to have a modern economic framework that allows federally regulated corporations to operate flexibly and innovatively. The Amendments are further intended to increase shareholder democracy and participation while reducing the burden of regulation.
Election of Directors
Shareholder Communications
Women on Boards of Directors and in Management
To support the representation of women on the boards of directors and in senior management of federal corporations, it has been announced that the Amendments will require distributing corporations to include disclosure regarding gender diversity among their directors and senior managers. This will bring the CBCA in line with Canadian securities regulations pursuant to which TSX-listed issuers are currently required to make such disclosure on a “comply or explain” basis.
Transparency
The Amendments clarify that all shares and warrants of CBCA corporations must be in registered rather than bearer form to increase transparency.
The definition of “affiliate” in the Competition Act is proposed to be amended to reflect a broader range of non-corporate bodies such as trusts, partnerships and other unincorporated entities by referring to entities rather than corporations.
The bill also proposes amendments to the Canada Cooperatives Act (CCA) and the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (NFP), which statutes are based on the CBCA. The Amendments to the CCA include changes regarding election of directors, transparency and shareholder communication described above. The Amendments to the NFP are largely of a technical nature.
Regulations that will provide details of the Amendments and their application are pending. Further in its announcement of the Amendments, the federal government stated that there are important corporate governance issues that were raised in the 2014 public consultation on the CBCA by the government that require further analysis and consultation. Further changes to the CBCA may be coming.
For more information on this development, please access the Government of Canada’s Backgrounder and FAQs.
Publication
We have contributed the Singapore chapter of Getting the Deal Through, Government Investigations 2025.
Publication
The private credit market and direct lending have grown and diversified immensely in the past decade, offering alternative sources and terms of debt compared to those historically provided by the syndicated leveraged loan and public issuance markets. Consequently, they are fast becoming pivotal components in the capital ecosystem, so much so that the Bank of England consider that the private credit market is currently responsible for approximately $1.8 trillion of debt issuance, which is four times its size in 2015. This growth has been particularly pronounced in Europe and the US but there has also been significant activity in Asia.
Publication
The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Regulation, commonly referred to as the AI Act, is expected to come into force during the summer of 2024 (the AI Act). The AI Act will be the first comprehensive legal framework for the use and development of artificial intelligence (AI), and is intended to ensure that AI systems developed and used in the EU are safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly.
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