The Allen & Overy Podcast

Join our global environmental and sustainability experts as we discuss the trends and outlook across some of our major jurisdictions for 2023. We look at developments across the UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa and the implications of the regulatory landscape on businesses. This episode was recorded in January 2023. The podcast does not go into detail on the expected regulatory changes directly focused on the financial services sector.  These will be the subject of a separate podcast.

Following the indictments of senior FTX executives, two guilty pleas and related enforcement actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the digital asset space faced huge difficulties towards the end of 2022. In addition, on January 3, 2023, the Federal Reserve, the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) and the OCC (Office of Comptroller of the Currency) issued a joint statement highlighting “key risks associated with crypto-assets and crypto-asset sector participants.”   Those risks included: risk of fraud and scams among crypto-asset sector participants legal uncertainties related to custody practices, redemptions, and ownership rights inaccurate or misleading representations and disclosures by crypto-asset companies, significant volatility in crypto-asset markets susceptibility of stablecoins to run risk contagion risk within the crypto-asset sector resulting from interconnections among certain crypto-asset participants risk management and governance practices in the crypto-asset sector exhibiting a lack of maturity and robustness heightened risks associated with open, public and decentralized networks U.S. Litigation experts Todd Fishman and Eugene Ingoglia talk through these developments and what they might reveal about potential trends as we enter 2023.

In this first episode, our team of ASEAN data experts gave a high level update on the latest happenings in the Southeast Asia region, and how it make affect your businesses. Among other developments, we know that:  The Indonesian government has recently passed the Personal Data Protection Bill.  The very first data protection legislation in Thailand has finally come into effect in June 2022. The PDPA in Singapore has had its first comprehensive review since 2012. Let our team of ASEAN data experts talk you through these developments, and what it means for your business.  Email us to get first hand news on these updates.

This podcast series features topical conversations with leading figures in the global banking industry. In this new episode, Sir Win Bischoff, Chairman of JP Morgan Securities, talks to Sally Dewar, CEO of A&O Consulting, about the strategic opportunities and challenges facing banks.  Sir Win and Sally discuss the evolving nature of boards, the role and value of organisational culture and individual conduct and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, they look at how the pandemic has changed the way banks operate. Among the topics discussed, Sir Win and Sally reflect on the banks’ efforts to tackle decarbonisation and sustainability, the focus on DE&I and the impact of the current economic and political environment. This episode was recorded in November 2022.

In this podcast, Hilaire Bedier, Codrina Constantinescu and Emma Danforth discuss some of the key regulatory changes on the horizon which asset managers and funds should have on their radar as we move towards 2023, including the hot topics of the retailisation of funds and ESG. This podcast forms part of the Great Fund Insights series, a global resource providing practical insights into legal and regulatory developments affecting fund managers and institutional investors across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the U.S.

How can organisations approach and manage behavioural risks, and focus their efforts with a strategic, structured approach? In this podcast, leader of the Organisational Behaviour practice within A&O Consulting, Clive Garfield, talks about the issues with Wieke Scholten, head of the Behavioural Risk practice in &samhoud.

A&O partner Kamar Jaffer (Dubai) discusses key legal and regulatory trends in the Cayman Islands with our guest speaker Philip Ireland, a Dubai-based partner at the Maples Group. This podcast forms part of Allen & Overy’s Selecting your Fund Domicile series. Selecting your Fund Domicile is a series of video podcasts that focuses on manager considerations for setting up a fund and choosing the most appropriate domicile. Featuring leading offshore law firms and A&O experts, these Q&A video podcasts explore some of the benefits and legal and regulatory considerations for offshore and onshore locations, including the British Virgin Islands, the Channel Islands, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Dublin, Cyprus, the Isle of Man, Mauritius and Luxembourg.  About the Speaker  Philip Ireland is the Dubai office joint Managing Partner of Maples and Calder, the Maples Group's law firm, where he is also head of the Dubai Funds & Investment Management team. He specialises in collective investment schemes, in particular private equity funds, venture capital funds, real estate funds, and Shariah compliant (Islamic) funds. He also has experience of working with family offices, ultra-high net worth individuals. Philip’s clients include asset managers in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and the MENA region.

Following publication in October of our client podcast “Annual Reports and AGMs- what you need to know this year” we have produced a supplemental podcast covering the recent update to the Pre-emption Group Statement of Principles, including the changes clients should consider making to their AGM dis-application of pre-emption rights resolutions in 2023 and our view on the possible impacts of the PEG update on secondary equity capital raisings.

Severe liquidity issues continue to plague large digital asset trading platforms. Most recently, FTX and its affiliated trading arm Alameda filed for protection under chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy laws.  With this news, the liquidity and capital problems spread to others in the crypto ecosystem. BlockFi, a cryptocurrency trading and lending platform, suspended withdrawals by its users and then filed for bankruptcy protection as well.In this third episode, Litigation Partners Todd Fishman and Eugene Ingoglia explore these developments and provide an acute overview of the so-called “insider trader” prosecutions in digital asset space.

In this episode of Allen & Overy's Market Horizons podcast Series, U.S. Project Finance Partner Sam Kamyans, is joined by Muireann Mageras, Head of Environmental Strategy & Advisory at Vertree, an integrated carbon solutions provider wholly owned by Hartree Partners, to provide an in depth view of key financing developments in the voluntary carbon credits (VCC) markets. Our speakers discuss the voluntary carbon credit markets, focusing on how voluntary elements can accelerate the energy transition while reducing overall carbon footprints. As the market evolves, voluntary carbon credits can generate a revenue stream that can be used to finance projects that remove carbon emissions from an industrial process. The speakers go on to differentiate voluntary credits from regulatory credits, noting the strong market based solutions available when emitters choose to participate in a voluntary system. Notably, they discuss that the imperatives to do this increasingly come from financial markets, as the rise of ESG and sustainability-linked financing, paired with increasing consumer awareness and pressure from younger generations of buyers as well as shareholders alike, have prompted corporates to think more about these issues.