Google says it will press U.S. lawmakers on Thursday to update laws on how governments access customer data stored on servers located in other countries.
Google said this was with the hope to address a mounting concern for both law enforcement officials and Silicon Valley.
The push comes amid growing legal uncertainty both in the U.S. and across the globe about how technology firms must comply with government requests for foreign-held data.
The company raised alarm that criminal and terrorism investigations were being hindered by outdated laws that make the current process for sharing information slow and burdensome.
Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel will announce the company’s framework during a speech in Washington, D.C., at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that wields influence in the Trump White House and Republican-controlled Congress.
The company said that the speech would urge congress to update a decades-old electronic communications law and follows similar efforts by Microsoft Corp.
Both companies had previously objected in court to U.S. law enforcement efforts to use domestic search warrants for data held overseas because the practice could erode user privacy.
But the tech industry and privacy advocates have also admitted the current rules for appropriate cross-border data requests are untenable.
The Mountain View, California-based company called for allowing countries that commit to baseline privacy, human rights and due process principles to directly request data from U.S. providers without the need to consult the U.S. government as an intermediary.
It is intended to be reciprocal.
Countries that do not adhere to the standards, such as an oppressive regime, would not be eligible.
Google did not detail specific baseline principles in its framework.
“This couldn’t be a more urgent set of issues,’’ Walker said in an interview, noting that recent acts of terrorism in Europe underscored the need to move quickly.
Current agreements that allowed law enforcement access to data stored overseas known as mutual legal assistance treaties, involve a formal diplomatic request for data and required the host country obtain a warrant on behalf of the requesting country which could often take several months.
In January, a divided federal appeals court refused to reconsider its decision from the 2016 decision that said the U.S. government could not force Microsoft or other companies to hand over the customer data stored abroad under a domestic warrant.
The U.S. Justice Department has until midnight on Friday to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court.
It did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. judges have ruled against Google in similar recent cases, however, elevating the potential for Supreme Court review.
Companies, privacy advocates and judges have urged congress to address the problem rather than leave it to courts.
Google will also ask congress to codify warrant requirements for data requests that involved content such as the actual message found within an email.
Chris Calabrese, vice president of policy at the Centre for Democracy & Technology said Google’s framework was “broadly correct’’ but urged caution about the process for letting countries make direct requests to providers.
“We need to make sure the people in the club are the right people,’’ he said.
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Google says it will press U.S. lawmakers on Thursday to update laws on how governments access customer data stored on servers located in other countries.
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Google said this was with the hope to address a mounting concern for both law enforcement officials and Silicon Valley.
The push comes amid growing legal uncertainty both in the U.S. and across the globe about how technology firms must comply with government requests for foreign-held data.
The company raised alarm that criminal and terrorism investigations were being hindered by outdated laws that make the current process for sharing information slow and burdensome.
Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel will announce the company’s framework during a speech in Washington, D.C., at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that wields influence in the Trump White House and Republican-controlled Congress.
The company said that the speech would urge congress to update a decades-old electronic communications law and follows similar efforts by Microsoft Corp.
Both companies had previously objected in court to U.S. law enforcement efforts to use domestic search warrants for data held overseas because the practice could erode user privacy.
But the tech industry and privacy advocates have also admitted the current rules for appropriate cross-border data requests are untenable.
The Mountain View, California-based company called for allowing countries that commit to baseline privacy, human rights and due process principles to directly request data from U.S. providers without the need to consult the U.S. government as an intermediary.
It is intended to be reciprocal.
Countries that do not adhere to the standards, such as an oppressive regime, would not be eligible.
Google did not detail specific baseline principles in its framework.
“This couldn’t be a more urgent set of issues,’’ Walker said in an interview, noting that recent acts of terrorism in Europe underscored the need to move quickly.
Current agreements that allowed law enforcement access to data stored overseas known as mutual legal assistance treaties, involve a formal diplomatic request for data and required the host country obtain a warrant on behalf of the requesting country which could often take several months.
In January, a divided federal appeals court refused to reconsider its decision from the 2016 decision that said the U.S. government could not force Microsoft or other companies to hand over the customer data stored abroad under a domestic warrant.
The U.S. Justice Department has until midnight on Friday to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court.
It did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. judges have ruled against Google in similar recent cases, however, elevating the potential for Supreme Court review.
Companies, privacy advocates and judges have urged congress to address the problem rather than leave it to courts.
Google will also ask congress to codify warrant requirements for data requests that involved content such as the actual message found within an email.
Chris Calabrese, vice president of policy at the Centre for Democracy & Technology said Google’s framework was “broadly correct’’ but urged caution about the process for letting countries make direct requests to providers.
“We need to make sure the people in the club are the right people,’’ he said.
PanARMENIAN.Net – Alphabet Inc’s Google will press U.S. lawmakers on Thursday, June 22 to update laws on how governments access customer data stored on servers located in other countries, hoping to address a mounting concern for both law enforcement officials and Silicon Valley, Reuters says.
The push comes amid growing legal uncertainty, both in the United States and across the globe, about how technology firms must comply with government requests for foreign-held data. That has raised alarm that criminal and terrorism investigations are being hindered by outdated laws that make the current process for sharing information slow and burdensome.
Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel, will announce the company’s framework during a speech in Washington, D.C., at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that wields influence in the Trump White House and Republican-controlled Congress.
The speech urges Congress to update a decades-old electronic communications law and follows similar efforts by Microsoft Corp.
Both companies had previously objected in court to U.S. law enforcement efforts to use domestic search warrants for data held overseas because the practice could erode user privacy. But the tech industry and privacy advocates have also admitted the current rules for appropriate cross-border data requests are untenable.
The Mountain View, California-based company calls for allowing countries that commit to baseline privacy, human rights and due process principles to directly request data from U.S. providers without the need to consult the U.S. government as an intermediary. It is intended to be reciprocal.
Countries that do not adhere to the standards, such as an oppressive regime, would not be eligible.
Google did not detail specific baseline principles in its framework.
(Reuters) — Alphabet’s Google will press U.S. lawmakers on Thursday to update laws on how governments access customer data stored on servers located in other countries, hoping to address a mounting concern for both law enforcement officials and Silicon Valley.
The push comes amid growing legal uncertainty, both in the United States and across the globe, about how technology firms must comply with government requests for foreign-held data. That has raised alarm that criminal and terrorism investigations are being hindered by outdated laws that make the current process for sharing information slow and burdensome.
Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel, will announce the company’s framework during a speech in Washington, D.C., at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that wields influence in the Trump White House and Republican-controlled Congress.
The speech urges Congress to update a decades-old electronic communications law and follows similar efforts by Microsoft.
Both companies had previously objected in court to U.S. law enforcement efforts to use domestic search warrants for data held overseas because the practice could erode user privacy. But the tech industry and privacy advocates have also admitted the current rules for appropriate cross-border data requests are untenable.
The Mountain View, California-based company calls for allowing countries that commit to baseline privacy, human rights and due process principles to directly request data from U.S. providers without the need to consult the U.S. government as an intermediary. It is intended to be reciprocal.
Countries that do not adhere to the standards, such as an oppressive regime, would not be eligible.
Google did not detail specific baseline principles in its framework.
“This couldn’t be a more urgent set of issues,” Walker said in an interview, noting that recent acts of terrorism in Europe underscored the need to move quickly.
Current agreements that allow law enforcement access to data stored overseas, known as mutual legal assistance treaties, involve a formal diplomatic request for data and require the host country obtain a warrant on behalf of the requesting country. That can often take several months.
In January, a divided federal appeals court refused to reconsider its decision from last year that said the U.S. government could not force Microsoft or other companies to hand over customer data stored abroad under a domestic warrant.
The U.S. Justice Department has until midnight on Friday to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court. It did not respond to a request for comment.
U.S. judges have ruled against Google in similar recent cases, however, elevating the potential for Supreme Court review.
Companies, privacy advocates and judges themselves have urged Congress to address the problem rather than leave it to courts.
Google will also ask Congress to codify warrant requirements for data requests that involve content, such as the actual message found within an email.
Chris Calabrese, vice president of policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said Google’s framework was “broadly correct” but urged caution about the process for letting countries make direct requests to providers.
“We need to make sure the people in the club are the right people,” he said.
(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law nine bills including the Finance Bill 2017, which allows the government to tax betting firms at a uniform rate of 35 per cent.
The move comes barely a week after the Head of State refused to sign the bill and sent it back to the National Assembly claiming that Members of Parliament deleted a clause that was designed to discourage youth from engaging in betting.
Members of Parliament (MPs) had shot down the punitive tax rate rise whose chief proponent was National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich before Kenyatta declined to assent the Bill.
The President finally signed it yesterday in a move that is likely to turn the gaming sector on its heels.
The purpose of the amendment of Section 59 B of Cap 469 was to ‘discourage Kenyans, especially the youth, from betting, lottery and gaming activities instead of productive economic engagement, a vice that is likely to degenerate into a social disaster.’
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich had initially proposed a 50 per cent tax levy on gaming firms, which later garnered protests from industry players saying hiking the tax will not only kill the growing industry but also discourage investors.
Until now, lotteries were taxed at 5 per cent, betting firms bookmakers at 7.5 per cent, casino gambling at 12 per cent and competitions like raffles at 15 per cent.
Other Bills assented to by the President include the Basic Education Amendment Bill 2016, the Division of Revenue Bill 2017, Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2017, Insurance Amendment Bill 2017, Hydrologist Bill 2016, the Clinical Officers Bill 2016 and the National Coroners Service Bill 2016.
The Basic Education Amendment Bill 2016 requires the government to provide every teenage school girl enrolled with sanitary towels while the Division of Revenue Act seeks at providing for the equitable provision of revenue raised nationally between both levels of government and would be effective starting 2017/2018 fiscal year.
People who default on their student loans could hear from a private debt collector. The government turns to collection agencies to get payments out of people who often don’t work and can’t have their wages or tax returns garnished.
KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:
President Trump’s proposed budget calls for cutting back affordable options for people paying back student loans. Even with the current slate of repayment plans, millions of Americans who took out money to go to college are struggling to keep up. As a result, federal officials have been taking former students to court. Since 2012, these borrowers have paid the government $87 million after facing lawsuits. Bobby Allyn of member station WHYY brings us this story about how private law firms help the government get those loans repaid.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: When Maribel Carrasquillo-Rivera was trying to make sense of a lawsuit filed against her over a federal student loan, the amount jumped out at her. She borrowed $2,600 to attend a computer training school. But that was in 1984, and interest has been building.
MARIBEL CARRASQUILLO-RIVERA: This surprised me a lot. It was almost $9,000.
ALLYN: She had tried to pay it back over the years, but she claims the loan servicer was not keeping track of all her payments, so she gave up.
CARRASQUILLO-RIVERA: Even though it was my fault that I took the money, but I didn’t even end up working what I studied for.
ALLYN: Instead, she ended up making far less working as a part-time assistant with the Philadelphia School District. As Carrasquillo-Rivera examined the lawsuit even closer, another thing struck her. She had taken out a government loan, but it was a private debt collection law firm suing her. When she called them for more information, she got this automated message.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Welcome to KML Law Group. Please be advised that this firm may be considered a debt collector, and any information received during your call may be used for that purpose.
ALLYN: The majority of the money the government has collected from one-time students by going to court has been thanks to private debt collection lawyers. That’s according to data obtained from the Justice Department. Instead of representing themselves, federal officials have farmed out this line of work to law firms that have worked for banks over things like credit card bills and foreclosures.
ROHIT CHOPRA: The tidal wave of defaults is creating a big opportunity for those to profit off of that pain.
ALLYN: Rohit Chopra is a consumer advocate and former senior official in the Department of Education.
CHOPRA: And the debt collection industry certainly looks at the student loan market as a big growth opportunity.
ALLYN: Now, who exactly are the ones being sued, and how does the government decide who to go after? Precise answers are hard to come by, but after reviewing dozens of the suits, patterns did appear. Almost all of the borrowers took out loans decades ago. In the bucket of unpaid federal student loan debt, these are the debtors way at the bottom. Often the borrowers are getting paid under the table, or they’re low-income, making it tricky for officials to take tax refunds or garnish wages. The government turns to debt collection lawyers when other efforts to collect have failed and when they know the student has some kind of asset, like a home.
JENNIFER SCHULTZ: You’re not talking about doctors and lawyers. You’re talking about people who went to community colleges and trade schools.
ALLYN: Lawyer Jennifer Schultz has represented former students in these types of cases. Advocates like Schultz say these suits seem to be targeting people who have the least ability to pay anything back since many never finished college despite the debt that got them there. But others, like lawyer Harlan Cohen, have a different view. He’s represented institutions owed money in court. He says the government can’t just look the other way when someone takes out a taxpayer-backed loan and then tries to disappear.
HARLAN COHEN: There’s always going to be a certain percentage of that. Since these loans are taxpayer-backed, there is an obligation to the society at large to enforce the creditors’ rights – in this case, they’re backed by the government – to get the loans repaid.
ALLYN: But Natalia Abrams thinks there could be another way to ensure repayment. She runs the nonprofit called Student Debt Crisis. She says the money paying for private law firms could instead be devoted to helping students find affordable repayment plans.
NATALIA ABRAMS: And then the government would still be able to recoup their money.
ALLYN: President Trump’s proposed budget aims to reduce the four income-based repayment plans to one. That change requires congressional approval. For NPR News, I’m Bobby Allyn in Philadelphia.
(SOUNDBITE OF COTTON JONES SONG, “SOMEHOW TO KEEP IT GOING”)
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Lawyer Kinika Young left her job as a partner in Bass Berry & Sim’s health care practice to work for the Tennessee Justice Center following the 2016 presidential election so she can work to protect health insurance for the state’s neediest children. Josie Norris
Kinika Young traded her private office in one of Nashville’s swankiest buildings for a job that’s going to help the state’s neediest kids but be rife with heartache and political setbacks.
Young made partner at Bass Berry & Sims after a decade of working with a colleague to build a health care practice representing hospitals in payment disputes with insurers.
Now she’s tasked with building a grass-roots awareness campaign on a shoestring budget about how the futures of children — particularly the poorest — are brighter and healthier when they get access to medical care.
The 36-year-old is the director of children’s health at Tennessee Justice Center. It’s a new spot being filled by Young, who is freshly recommitted to using legal training to protect what she sees as an endangered system for the state’s neediest children.
She wasn’t looking to leave Bass Berry. In fact, she rebuffed recruiters time and again.
As 2016 unfolded, she watched the Black Lives Matter movement organize in response to the killing of black Americans by law enforcement — deaths that alarmed her.
Donald Trump’s election and immediate actions endangering civil rights stirred her.
She thought about who directly benefited from her law practice, and if being a partner at a corporate law firm reflected why she became a lawyer.
“After the election I decided it wasn’t enough to just volunteer on pro bono cases here and there,” Young said. “It cemented in my mind this is what I need to be doing.”
Getting to Nashville from Montgomery via Tulane
Young didn’t know a lawyer growing up in Montgomery, Ala.; she saw them only on TV. From an early age, teachers encouraged her to think about law because she loved to read and debate.
The realities of the job are far from the glamour and expediency of cases on shows such as “The Good Wife,” one of her favorites. Real-life attorneys spend lots of time quietly by themselves, reading, researching, strategizing and writing.
Bass Berry brought her to Nashville to clerk and helped her navigate the final year of law school at Tulane University Law School that was upended by Hurricane Katrina.
She did a semester at Vanderbilt University’s Law School and even lived with Jennifer Philips, then the director of business development and marketing of Bass Berry, who was newly single and an empty nester.
It was then her roots got planted in Nashville, and she’s remained close with Philips.
“I actually hadn’t been to Nashville before I came to interview for that clerkship. I had no connection to Nashville at all,” Young said. “I like to jokingly say I saw it coming, I predicted how hot Nashville would be.”
The firm hired her straight out of law school.
Her decision to leave took her former colleagues by surprise, said Todd Rolapp, Bass Berry’s current managing partner. She’s highly regarded, and loved, by colleagues.
She was a mentor to younger attorneys — corporate law firms still struggle to make sure they have a diverse staff. She was instrumental in building a practice from the ground up. People lament the void around the office by the loss of her “clever, wry observations,” Rolapp said.
“We felt fortunate to have her the whole time. It’s not common to stay for 10 years,” Rolapp said.
The new gig will put Young in the harsh light that shines on people who take on politically contentious causes.
The TJC works with people who fight to keep hardship at bay, knowing one misstep — or health surprise — could thrust them into choosing between food and electricity or medications.
Young is unnerved by federal proposals to cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid — the program in its sixth decade that she says is vital for the poorest children in the South, the region she innately loves.
“If she was ever going to leave, it was for something like that,” Rolapp said. “When you talked to her about those kind of issues you could tell she was sincerely passionate. If someone had asked me to predict (why) she would ever leave, this would be what I would have predicted.”
Tapping into public anger, and being ready to handle it
The TJC is embedded on the front lines of the fight for care. The co-founders are accustomed to loud opposition.
But since Nov. 9 the level of contempt has cranked up alongside a moderate increase in donations.
One man recently made a pastime out of calling her voicemail to threaten to punch Michele Johnson, executive director and co-founder of TJC, in the face. Her voicemail foe, who always left his name and number, finally stopped calling, but his persistence was a new level of anger from someone Johnson had never met.
Young will be at the heart of the center’s initiative to raise awareness about the lifelong and communitywide benefits that come when children have the chance to be healthy.
Frederick Douglass said, “It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Whatever form Young’s success takes, it’s unlikely that children are going to know she took a steep pay cut and upended her life to work for them.
She falls in the camp that thinks health care is a right, not a privilege, and she was compelled to protect a system she believes will improve the lives of future adults — thereby improving her community, her state and her country.
As haters emerge — it’s a matter of when in this new line of work, not if — Keith Simmons is confident Young will be undeterred.
“I don’t have much doubt. Kinika is a strong person. I can’t foresee that there’s any kind of criticism or blowback that’s going to come her way that’s going to get her down. She’ll handle it,” said Simmons, a retired managing partner of Bass Berry who has known Young since her days as a clerk.
‘If someone like her could join this fight then we can win’
In February she asked to lunch with Johnson, who was excited that Young might want to join a committee.
Instead Young said she wanted to work for the TJC if they had a position.
Johnson immediately thought, “Is this a miracle?”
But her response was swift: “We can’t afford you. We just absolutely, positively can’t afford you.”
The TJC wouldn’t be able to pay the money a partner at a corporate law firm makes.
But Young was serious, and the TJC was close to getting a three-year $200,000 grant from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation to fund a new program to protect and bolster government health programs that insure children. So Young become one piece of that new program.
“The work is unbelievably heartbreaking almost every day,” Johnson said. “We tell people when we interview them it will be so emotionally exhausting, absolutely intellectually exhausting, but at the end of the day you will know you made a difference. After 92 steps back you think, ‘I know we’ll have a step forward soon.’ “
Young is guardedly excited about the rest of 2017.
Her younger brother was shot and killed in the days before she started her new job.
Having Young on the team is a win Johnson scarcely dreamed would ever happen.
“It’s a huge morale booster for all of us. If someone like her could join this fight then we can win,” Johnson said.
Moving forward as she traverses the state, Young wants to be the example she never saw as a child: a real-life attorney who can help make people’s lives better.
Reach Holly Fletcher at hfletcher@tennessean.com or 615-259-8287 and on Twitter @hollyfletcher.
Meet Kinika Young
Age: 36
Siblings: one younger brother (living)
Hobbies: traveling
Favorite destination: Cuba and any place with a beach
Favorite books: “Americanah,” “Things Fall Apart” and lots of historical fiction
Favorite Nashville spot: any live music venue; her new favorite is Rudy’s Jazz Room
Volunteering and clubs: community service projects with Napier-Looby Bar Association and Middle Tennessee Florida A&M University Alumni Chapter
Read or Share this story: http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/health-care/2017/06/11/kinika-young-trades-corporate-law-for-protecting-kids-healthcare/322601001/
PILMMA Super Summit is a three-day event that aims to help injury and disability attorneys market their practice like a PRO!
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (PRWEB) June 21, 2017
Struggling to stand out from the competition? Guilty of hiring too quickly or firing too slowly? Losing ROI on your marketing dollars? Then, PILMMA Super Summit 2017 should be on your radar.
PILMMA Super Summit 2017 takes place September 13-16, 2017, at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. The Summit is PILMMA’s annual preeminent event for injury and disability attorneys, putting them on the front lines of the latest marketing and management strategies to launch their practice into the next stratosphere.
This year’s event promises to be a one-of-a-kind three-day event packed full of helpful information, tips from experts in the marketing and management fields and access to vendors with Summit special pricing. For lawyers who want to build a better law practice, PILMMA Super Summit has the blueprint. Some of this year’s topics include:
How to Get Massive Publicity for Pennies on the Dollar
How to Systematically Market Your Law Practice
You’re Doing It All Wrong: 22 Marketing Mistakes, Misallocations and Misses Your Firm is Making
How to Dominate TV with a Small Budget
Keep More of What You Make: Best Practices in Tax Reductions for Law Firms
To register for the Summit, view the agenda or find out more about the guest speakers, visit pilmmasummit.com. To learn more about how a PILMMA membership can benefit a law practice, visit pilmma.org or call 800-497-1890.
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PILMMA is the only marketing and management firm dedicated exclusively to helping injury and disability attorneys effectively lead, promote and grow their practice. Our mission is to transform the lives of 5,000 injury and disability law firm owners from a life of frustration, overwhelm and overwork to one of super profits, high productivity and a balanced life.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/06/prweb14426014.htm
Mumbai: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) relaxed some rules on Wednesday to hasten the resolution of stressed assets in bank balance sheets.
The regulator has exempted buyers of shares in distressed companies from the requirement of making an open offer even if the purchase triggers such an event under the takeover code, Sebi announced after its board meeting on Wednesday.
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Under Sebi’s takeover norms, one of the triggers for an open offer is when an entity acquires 25% or more in a listed company. The entity then has to make an offer to buy an additional 26% stake in the company from the public shareholders.
Sebi said it has come across cases where lenders acquired shares in a distressed company but could not sell the stake to a new investor because the takeover norms proved restrictive and reduced the funds available for investment in the stressed firm.
This has triggered the need for additional relaxation, which is at present available only to financial creditors under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) strategic debt restructuring (SDR) scheme. Indian banks are currently sitting on stressed assets of Rs10 trillion and last week, RBI identified 12 large accounts where it directed banks to initiate bankruptcy proceedings.
These exemptions, however, will need to be approved by a special resolution (at least 75% shareholders voting in favour). Secondly, the shares bought by the new investor will also be locked in for at least three years, Sebi said.
The regulator said it will grant similar exemptions for those firms which have got their resolution plans approved by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
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“The new insolvency law allows insolvency professionals a lot of latitude to try different permutations and combinations to unlock the maximum value of a stressed company,” said Sandeep Parekh, founder of law firm Finsec Law Advisors. These would range “from a wipeout of existing equity and issue of new equity to banks to sale of a substantial stake to a strategic investor to a listed spin-off. If each stage of a multi-stage action plan triggers open offers and other Sebi regulatory costs, the unlocking of value to banks of their already distressed assets would come down”.
Secondly, the regulator also relaxed laws which will make it easier for private equity-backed firms to raise funds through new share sales. It has exempted category II alternative investment funds (AIFs) such as private equity and real estate funds from the mandatory one-year lock-in of shares when a company they have invested in goes for an initial public offering. Currently, category I AIFs such as venture capital and infrastructure funds are granted that exemption.
“This would bring about uniformity, ease of doing business and expand the investor base available for capital raising,” the regulator said in a statement.
A third set of announcements were related to proposals that will allow foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) easier access. The regulator said it was planning to allow more regions to grant FPI registration by including countries that have a diplomatic tie-up with India, simplify so-called broad-based requirements and relax ‘fit and proper’ rules.
An FPI is considered to be broad-based if it has at least 20 investors, with none of them holding more than 49%. However, if the broad-based fund has institutional investors, it is not necessary for the fund to have 20 investors, according to existing Sebi norms.
Sebi will soon float a discussion paper to introduce the new FPI norms, said chairman Ajay Tyagi.
However, the regulator continued to be tough on investments through participatory notes (P-notes). On Wednesday, it formalized its proposal (made in a discussion paper in May) to levy a fee of $1,000 on subscribers of offshore derivative investments (which typically involve P-notes).
The regulator said it is also in the process of reviewing norms for the equity derivatives market and plans to release a discussion paper.
“Retail investors are not fully aware of the risks involved in derivatives investment,” said Tyagi.
In the ongoing case of alleged violation of algorithmic trading norms by the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd, the markets regulator said it has issued show-cause notices to 14 key managerial persons of the bourse and will do its own investigation with the help of forensic auditors.
“We have also started an investigation to look into issues of possible connivance between NSE employees and brokers and unfair gains for brokers,” said Tyagi.
EY, which was appointed as the forensic auditor to prepare a report on NSE, will submit its report to Sebi in two weeks, said Tyagi.
Separately, in a circular, Sebi said it has allowed hedge funds to trade in the commodity derivatives market, subject to certain safeguards.
