The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ("CSRD") entered into force on 5 January 2023 and the associated European Sustainability Reporting Standards ("ESRS") were adopted by the European Commission on 31 July 2023. 

Together, the CSRD and ESRS create detailed sustainability reporting requirements that will apply to a significant number of EU and non-EU companies and substantially increase the scope of their sustainability reporting. 

Application of the rules is now imminent and, for some, CSRD reporting periods will begin from 1 January 2024.

In this seminar, we take a look at the implications of the CSRD for non-EU companies and what companies can do to prepare.

Learning objectives

In particular, this seminar will help you:

• learn more about the scope of CSRD and the implications for non-EU clients;
• understand some of the detail of the reporting obligations required by CSRD and ESRS;
• hear more about some of the practical difficulties and challenges of compliance; and
• appreciate what in-scope entities are doing to prepare for this important regulatory development.

The US federal banking regulators recently proposed extensive revisions to the regulatory capital requirements for midsize and larger US banks. The proposal would dramatically increase the amount of capital that larger banks must hold and is expected to result in US banks reducing the availability of certain products or increasing their prices. Non-US banks and corporates will need to consider how they source financing and other products from US banks. They also will need to consider whether there are alternative structures or sources for certain types of bank products that may not be penalized as harshly under the proposal. For example, we expect to see many banks and customers investigate risk transfer and securities financing transactions as ways to reduce the regulatory charge for the bank.  

More broadly, US banks will face challenges in executing certain types of US and cross-border deals, creating opportunities for non-US banks and US nonbank lenders. While the proposal may push non-US banks to continue to shrink their US operations and intermediate holding companies, there often is no need for a bank to establish a US presence to service many types of US businesses. This is particularly true for derivatives, which are explicitly called out in the proposal for more punitive capital charges. 

Mayer Brown Forum invites you to attend the next session in our exclusive webinar series for the legal sector: "What US Basel Endgame Means Outside of the United States". 

Learning objectives

This program will help you:

• Learn what is changing about the US regulatory capital requirements.
• Understand how this may affect your non-US bank and corporate clients.
• Begin to explore US opportunities and more cost-efficient alternatives.
• Appreciate the halting and haphazard pace of US financial regulation.

With the cybersecurity landscape evolving ever more rapidly, and the threats to businesses’ critical information and assets—as well as to their bottom lines—are only increasing. Breaches continue to grow in scale and sophistication, regulators are crowding the field with an expanding and shifting array of requirements and de facto standards, and litigation remains perilous. Now, more than ever, businesses must think strategically about the cyber threats they face—whether to consumer or employee information, intellectual property or product safety—and take practical steps to address the associated legal, business and reputational risks.

Data privacy & security have gone from legal issues to business issues. The issues have gone from compliance to business because they are impacting revenue. This year, data privacy caused NASDAQ-listed companies to lose 1.4 trillion dollars in market cap in 2022. Last year, cybersecurity cost our global economy over 6 trillion dollars. If data privacy and cybersecurity represented the GDP of one country, they would amount to the third largest GDP in the world, behind the US and China. With headlines featuring data breaches, technology and privacy whistleblowers, regulators are looking to the C-Suite and the Boardroom to demonstrate leadership that will promote innovation and consumer trust.

Learning objectives This program will help you:

• Learn how regulators are focusing on the C-Suite and boardroom leaders in terms of their oversight of privacy and data security.
• Understand how boards are receiving business and financial contextualized metrics.
• Understand how proxy companies like ISS are scoring privacy/cyber maturity under the governance prong of ESG.
• Appreciate how to prepare the C-Suite and boardroom for communications before governmental bodies, like the CEO of Colonial Pipeline’s congressional testimony.

Our panel of Mayer Brown lawyers from America and the UK will provide their insight into the key trends and developments in the market relating to Global Mobility that clients should be aware of as demand for global travel, mobility and immigration services recovers. The session has particular focus on:

• COVID-19 travel restrictions – where are we now and where are we headed
• Ukraine/Russia crisis effect on mobility
• Half-term update on Biden’s administration – what have we learned and what can we expect
• Visa and immigration update
• Emerging topics in the COVID recovery era

Intellectual property is one of the key drivers of profitability for a multinational company. Because IP is inherently mobile, tax planning for IP routinely involves intercompany licensing, cost sharing and other co-ownership structures. Moving IP in connection with a tax planning strategy can generate significant bottom line value, but doing so, without the coordination of IP and Tax expertise creates significant risks. These issues are also a critical part of any merger, acquisition, reorganization, or joint venture.

Whenever a transaction includes either the acquisition or the migration of IP assets, it often results in inter–affiliate decisions that implicate both tax and IP issues. The failure to address both the tax and the IP issues can result in harm to the company. If not done properly, a company may not have standing to sue to recover lost profits or obtain an injunction. In addition to these IP risks, cross-border IP structures come with enhanced audit risk, as demonstrated by recent US Tax Court cases where the interplay between tax and IP is often integral to the outcome.

Please join Mayer Brown Intellectual Property partner James R. Ferguson and Tax partners Jenny Austin and Michael Lebovitz as they discuss the crucial considerations and best practices for these transactions, answering questions such as:

• How can a company optimize its tax position through the placement of its IP assets?
• What transfer pricing issues arise when a company migrates the ownership of its patents from one jurisdiction to another?
• How does cost sharing affect the tax treatment of IP assets developed by joint ventures?
• What tax disputes are currently being raised concerning ownership of IP assets?
• What patent enforcement issues can arise when a company migrates the ownership of its IP assets from one jurisdiction to another?
• How can a company best design its inter-affiliate licensing structure to protect the enforcement options for its patent portfolio?
• How should patent-owning companies draft employee agreements to ensure corporate ownership of all future inventions?

Our panel of Mayer Brown lawyers from Asia, the Americas and the UK, whom are also members of our Global ESG Committee, will provide their insight into the key developments of ESG that clients should be aware of.

Following the inauguration Joe Biden on 20 January, we will discuss how the Biden administration has impacted the global market to date and how we anticipate it will affect the market in the future. During this session, Mayer Brown lawyers from the US and UK will provide their insight into the likely new enforcement regime in the Biden administration.