P.R.I.M.E. Finance Newsletter - 16 December 2019

UPCOMING EVENTS

The ninth annual P.R.I.M.E. Finance Conference will take place on 3 and 4 February 2020 at the Peace Palace in The Hague. 

You can register for the conference here. Discounts for P.R.I.M.E. Experts and early bird registration are now available, as well as discounts for current in-house counsel at banks, hedge funds, asset managers and other financial services businesses. 

Over the course of two days, the world's foremost financial experts will address a range of cutting-edge issues. The emphasis on the first day will be on business topics, including sustainable finance and the impact on the financial sector of climate change and the challenges of benchmark transition. On the second day, we will focus on topics that are more relevant for financial disputes, such as: trends in financial litigation; the latest challenges facing arbitrators and judges; the role of arbitration in the financial services sector; and the growth of third party funding. 

For more information on the agenda or registration details, please click here or contact secretary@primefinancedisputes.org. 

How can you help? 

• Register your attendance now. 
• Pass on the details to your contacts and colleagues, particularly in-house counsel at financial services businesses, and encourage them to register. 
• Share P.R.I.M.E. Finance updates on your own LinkedIn profiles. Some of you will have noticed our recent LinkedIn campaign. The Secretariat has reached out to connect with interested parties. We now have 1,000 connections. We have also significantly increased our P.R.I.M.E. Finance Foundation public page following.  Please click here to follow us on LinkedIn.  Thank you for your support!  
• If you have contacts and colleagues who are interested in P.R.I.M.E. Finance, let the Secretariat know and we will reach out to them on LinkedIn. 
• If you are interested in sponsoring or if you have ideas for potential sponsors, let the Secretariat know. 
• This is a time of year when we see a lot of traffic to our website. We also regularly receive requests from lawfirms and others looking to be put in touch with particular Experts. Please therefore take the time to check your listing and if you have any changes to make, contact the Secretariat. 

Last year, we had well over 300 registered attendees. This year, we hope for more!

WORKING GROUP ON P.R.I.M.E. FINANCE ARBITRATION RULES

We would like to set up a working group to help keep P.R.I.M.E. Finance’s Arbitration Rules up-to-date and under review. Please contact Camilla if you would like to be involved.  

RECENT EVENTS

The second annual P.R.I.M.E. Finance New York Conference took place on 17 October at the offices of Jones Day. The conference brought together nearly 100 participants to discuss navigating pitfalls in the changing financial landscape. The topics ranged from the global economy to Fintech, from benchmark reform to ethics and technology. 

In October, Rick Grove and Jonathan Ross braved Typhoon Mitag to give a lecture at National Taiwan University College of Law on “What Lawyers Should Know About the Current State of the Global Financial Markets” before then presenting a two day judicial capacity building course on “Global Financial Markets: The Economic and Legal Framework” for Taiwanese judges at the Judges Academy in Taipei. 

In November, P.R.I.M.E. Finance hosted a discussion on recent national and international finance cases at the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, or “DNB”) in Amsterdam. This was introduced by Willem Calkoen, and chaired by Pim Rank. Camilla Macpherson spoke about recent international derivatives and crypto-currency cases.

Also in November, Jeffrey Golden, Robert Pickel, Carolyn Jackson, Maria João Parreira and Paula Costa e Silva presented in Lisbon to the judiciary on topics including Derivatives and the ISDA Master Agreement - documentation, market practice and derivatives cases, the Banking Recovery and Resolution Directive and The Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Agency. These sessions were in association with the Portuguese Treasury and Public Debt Management Agency (the IGCP). 

In December, Rick Grove and Jonathan Ross taught a full day P.R.I.M.E. Finance capacity building course for judges from the Shanghai Financial Court.  There were approximately 100 attendees, including various court officials, futures exchange officials and leading lawyers, in addition to the judges.  Feedback was very positive and the heads of the court expressed an interest in inviting P.R.I.M.E. Finance back in 2020.

THE P.R.I.M.E. TEAM

Camilla Macpherson is working on conference preparations with Senior Adviser Demetra Koelling. Demetra Koelling is a US licensed attorney who has years of compliance experience in financial services and other industries.

We are also very pleased to be joined by a new group of interns. Sindhu Acharya has a masters degree in International Dispute Settlement and Arbitration from Leiden University and has an interest in investment arbitration and cryptocurrencies. Fanny Ceballosova is a student at Burgundy Law School and currently on exchange to Leiden Law School. Wa Gao recently received a masters degree in International Dispute Settlement and Arbitration from Leiden University. Marijke Michielsen is currently studying law and international business law at Leiden University. Martin Tinelli is a student at the University of Tours (France), currently on exchange at Leiden University. Find out more about the team here. Our interns look forward to meeting many of you in February. 

NEWS OF OUR EXPERTS AND BOARD MEMBERS 

Georges Affaki contributed to an ECB legal working paper on the new challenges raised by investment arbitration for the EU legal order, with a chapter on scrutinising the resolution of EU banks through the looking glass of investment treaty arbitration. 

Joshua Cohn, Rick Grove and Ken Raisler were among the speakers at the Practicing Law Institute’s October course on the Fundamentals of Swaps and Derivatives in New York.

Lisa Curran was interviewed for Risk.net in connection with risks arising from Euribor fallbacks and compound interest. You can read the article here.
 
Simon Firth, Jeffrey Golden, Rick Grove, Habib Motani and Peter Werner were among the speakers at ISDA’s November conference on Derivatives Disputes in London.

Scott Farrell spoke at the SIBOS conference in London in September on a panel on open banking, offering a comparison of regulatory perspectives from different jurisdictions around the world.
An article by Carolyn Jackson, John Ahern, Nathaniel W. Lalone and Neil Robson, titled “FCA Announces Launch of Green FinTech Challenge”, was selected as The National Law Review’s 2019 Article of the Year. You can read the article here. 

Philip Wood CBE, QC (Hon) published in July nine volumes in his revised series of works on the Law and Practice of International Finance – what a tour de force!  The publishers are Sweet & Maxwell, London.

NEW PANEL APPOINTMENTS

In July 2019, P.R.I.M.E. Finance considered and approved a number of new appointments to its expert panel, bringing the total number of experts to nearly 200. We now welcome the following experts to our panel:

• Lee C. Buchheit Honorary Professor, University of Edinburgh Law School; Visiting Professorial Fellow, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, University of London; former partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton LLP.
• Ian Cuillerier Partner at White & Case LLP (New York); Establishing Founder of the Derivatives Group. 
• Dame Elizabeth Gloster DBE, PC Practised as a commercial and Chancery QC at One Essex Court from 1991 until 2004, before accepting an appointment as a High Court judge, becoming the first woman to be appointed a judge of the Commercial Court. She was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2013 and became Vice-President of the Civil Division of that Court in 2016. Since retiring from the Court of Appeal in 2018, returned to One Essex Court to practise as a full-time commercial arbitrator. 
• Romina Lopez Martinez Managing Director, Relationship Management LatAm, Global Banking & Markets Scotiabank, and Co-chair of ISDA’s Latin America Committee.
• Marianne Lundius L.L.D.h.c. Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Sweden, Chairman of the Swedish Securities Counsel, Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of Stockholm Nasdaq and Member of the Board of the Karolinska Institute. 
• Jonathan Maphosa Nedbank Group Chief Legal Counsel, responsible for the Nedbank Group legal risk management and strategy including legal oversight of the Nedbank Group insurance division. Former General Counsel for BankservAfrica, the largest automated clearing house and payments system operator in Africa.
• Blythe Masters Former J.P. Morgan executive and founding CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, the New York headquartered blockchain fin-tech company. Extensive experience in banking, capital markets, derivatives, regulation, commodities and financial technology. 
• Keith Noyes Currently an Independent Non-executive Director at OTC Clear, a subsidiary of HKEx, and a Senior Consultant on IBOR Transition for Ernst & Young.  From October 2007 to May 2019, Keith was the Regional Director, Asia Pacific for ISDA.  Keith also has 10 years’ experience trading and structuring derivatives in Asian markets.
• Patrick N. Parkinson Special Adviser, Bank Policy Institute; former Director of Banking Supervision and Regulation, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; former Managing Director at Promontory Financial Group 
• Antonio Sainz de Vicuña Independent Director, Board of Directors, Executive Committee, CaixaBank; former General Counsel, European Central Bank (Frankfurt a.M.) and Chairperson, Eurosystem Legal Committee (LEGCO); former General Counsel, European Monetary Institute (Frankfurt a.M.)
• Claes Zettermarck  White & Case from 1983-2013, and since then an independent arbitrator; Vice President and President of the Swedish Bar Association from 2009 to 2013; and Chairman of Gamla Livförsäkringsaktiebolaget SEB Trygg Liv from 2001 to 2016.

LexisNexis® PUBLICATIONS

Camilla Macpherson was interviewed by LexisNexis about the P.R.I.M.E. Finance New York Conference and P.R.I.M.E.’s goals for 2020. Click here for more. 

P.R.I.M.E. FINANCE SERVICES AND NOMINATION OF NEW EXPERTS

P.R.I.M.E. Finance continues to administer requests for expert witness services. All such enquiries should now be directed to Camilla, Head of the Secretariat of P.R.I.M.E. Finance, with a copy to the Secretariat.

We continue to expand our global presence and invite additional nominations to our growing list of Experts. All nominees, unless given written notice otherwise, should assume that their applications remain under consideration and shall receive due consideration. For further information, please see our webpage or contact the Secretariat.

FRIENDS OF P.R.I.M.E.

Friends of P.R.I.M.E. is the principal means by which our Experts, market participants and other interested parties can show their financial support for P.R.I.M.E. The P.R.I.M.E. Finance Foundation is a not-for-profit Dutch foundation, which relies heavily on the pro bono spirited efforts and intellectual contribution of its Experts and Board members. P.R.I.M.E. Finance cherishes its independence, and donations through Friends of P.R.I.M.E. help preserve this. We also established a U.S.-based entity known as PRIME Finance Dispute Resolution and Education Foundation in order to apply for grants from U.S.-based foundations and allow our U.S.-based Friends to become Friends of P.R.I.M.E. in a tax efficient manner. All monies raised through Friends of P.R.I.M.E. go directly to program support.

Join numerous other Experts and supporters, and become a Friend of P.R.I.M.E. Finance today! Simply fill in and return the forms linked here. For more information on becoming a Friend of P.R.I.M.E., please contact the Secretariat.

PRESS COVERAGE

Find recent press articles and other media coverage concerning P.R.I.M.E. Finance here.

CONTACT US

For questions, please contact the Secretariat. Follow P.R.I.M.E. Finance on LinkedIn and Twitter!

Click here for the PDF download.

P.R.I.M.E. Finance Foundation
primefinancedisputes.org
The Hague, The Netherlands