Reading List: Legal Analysis & Review of Washington's Financial Industry Bailout Plan
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[Update 11.04.08: a permanent version of this JD Supra reading list is now located at Legal Analysis: The Global Financial Crisis. Please visit the new location for the latest updates and newest documents.]
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Morrison & Foerster, Duane Morris, Lang Michener, Mintz Levin, Lane Powell and other firms have been posting legal analysis of Washington's proposed bailout plans and other developments related to current upheaval in the financial industry. Here is a must-read list of some of those documents:
(Lawyers and firms, if you have documents to add to the mix, share them on JD Supra now.)
Overview
- Financial Crisis Alert: FBI Probes Role of 26 Firms in Financial Crisis
- Financial Crisis Alert: Study on Mark-to-Market Accounting
- Financial Crisis Alert: SEC Chairman Cox Calls for Credit Default Swaps Regulation
- Congress Passes Largest Financial Bailout Bill Since the Great Depression
- Highlights of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act
- Economic Stabilization Act: Overview of Transactions Involving Troubled Assets - reviews who can participate, what assets will be covered, and how the program will work.
- Joint Statement by Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC
- Money Market Fund Bailout Update; First Look: New Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Liquidity Facility - describes the temporary guaranty program for the U.S. money market mutual fund industry. Updates:
- First Look at Treasury Plan; Money Market Fund Bailout - describes the Bush administration's initial proposed legislation to grant the Treasury Secretary broad authority to purchase up to $700 billion of non-performing, hard-to-value real estate and mortgage related assets and securities from financial institutions in order to strengthen their financial position and allow for additional liquidity in the financial system.
- Bush Enacts Watershed Housing Bill Providing New Funding and Regulation for Mortgage Industry - reviews the Housing Assistance Act of 2008, signed into law on July 30, 2008, which created a $300 billion program to refinance troubled mortgages and created new regulatory oversight of Fannie Mae (“Fannie”) and Freddie Mac (“Freddie”)
Credit Repurchase Program and TARP
- As The Dust Settles...- One thing is for sure, each institution eligible for consideration under the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) as a potential recipient of a Treasury infusion of capital should be paying careful attention to the details of the announcement and what they may mean for it.
- Update to Treasury's Capital Purchase Program
- New Liquidity and Capital Alternatives for Financial Institutions: Treasury's TARP Capital Purchase Program; FDIC's Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program
- Newsletter of the Banking And Specialty Finance Practice Group of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
Fannie & Freddie
Executive Compensation Conditions
- Executive Compensation Restrictions Under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
- The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Extensively Regulates Executive Compensation, but Leaves Many Unanswered Questions
Tax Provisions
- Bailout Bill Tax Provisions - An Executive Summary - summary of some of the more significant business-related tax provisions included in the 'Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,' signed into law on October 3, 2008.
- Notice 2008-83: The IRS Offers Reassurance to Troubled Banks - analyzes IRS Notice 2008-83, 2008-42 I.R.B. 1 (the “Notice”), which effectively removes a potential barrier to bringing in new equity ownership of a struggling bank by assuring taxpayer banks that the IRS does not intend to challenge otherwise allowable deductions as being attributable to pre-ownership change periods. Updates:
- Federal Reserve Board Liberalizes Rules for Investments in Banks - describes the Federal Reserve Board guidelines for non-controlling, minority investments in banks and bank holding companies, and their impact.
- MoFo Tax Talk - discussing the proposed bailout bill's tax provisions.
Health Provisions
- Bailout Legislation Contains Key Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act - which require equal coverage of mental and physical illnesses in an employer's group health plan.
Environment & Energy Provisions
- Financial Bailout Package Contains Tax Incentives for Renewable Energy
- Summary of Cleantech Provisions in the Bailout Bill - reviews the Stabilization Act's clean-energy tax provisions, which total approximately $18 billion and provide tax incentives for energy production and conservation, extend expiring tax provisions relating to such incentives, and extend tax benefits to individual and business taxpayers.
- The Sun Will Continue to Shine on Renewable Energy: A Surprise Ending to the Renewable Energy Tax Credits Debate - discusses the Act's key tax provisions of significance to renewable energy investors and producers.
Securities
- Financial Crisis Alert: Study on Mark-to-Market Accounting
- Financial Crisis Alert: SEC Chairman Cox Calls for Credit Default Swaps Regulation
- Financial Crisis Alert: SEC Seeks to Combat Market Manipulation
- Financial Crisis Advisory: SEC Extends Emergency Short-Sale Restrictions and Reporting Requirements
- Update Regarding UK's Short-Selling Prohibition - updates information regarding UK’s Financial Services Authority's (FSA) short Selling (No 3) Instrument1, which conformed the definition of a “market maker” for the purposes of the disclosure obligation.
- Emergency Restrictions on Short Selling in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, which includes plain language definitions of the various types of short selling impacted.
- SEC Clarifies Short Sale Restrictions and Related Disclosure Requirements (which updates):
- New Restrictions on Short Sales; Disclosure Requirements for Short Sales and Positions; and Relaxed Issuer Repurchase Requirements - analyzes the SEC's new rules regarding short selling to avoid accelerating downward pressure on securities.
Impact on Employers/ERISA Retirement Plans
- And You Thought the Bailout Was Bad: Employment Law Risks in the Current Financial Crisis
- Employee Benefits Alert: Financial Markets Impact ERISA Retirement Plans and Plan Fiduciaries
- Economic Stabilization Act: Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation
New Mortgage Lending Rules
- Federal Reserve's New Mortgage Lending Rules to Take Effect October 2009 - covers the Federal Reserve Board's ("the Fed") rules implemented last summer to curb misleading and deceptive practices in mortgage lending, especially subprime loans.
- Avoiding Lender Liability in Sub Prime Loans
Making Lemonade
- Slowing economy presents opportunities and challenges: buying & selling financially distressed businesses
- Recovery Legislation Creates Both Opportunities and Risks for Government Contractors
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[Update 11.04.08: a permanent version of this JD Supra reading list is now located at Legal Analysis: The Global Financial Crisis. Please visit the new location for the latest updates and newest documents.]
Related news coverage:
- U.S. Implements Bailout as Global Markets Plunge (Washington Post; free reg req'd)
- Blaming Deregulation (Wash Post)
- Without a Bailout Plan, What Will the Cost Be? (Time)
- World Markets Plummet Despite Bailout (CBS News)
- Forecasters See Wobbly U.S. Economy Ahead (CBS News)
