Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%
Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
Regulation and Innovation in Leasing
Successful equipment leasing companies strive to incorporate innovative ideas into their business, whether in operations, marketing or financing itself. Innovation is a key to remaining competitive and to being a market leader. At the same time, though, the current equipment leasing marketplace is facing increasingly burdensome regulations and compliance requirements, which often have the effect of sapping corporate energy, time and resources, and distracting management from focusing on new ideas. It would seem that these two factors are inherently incompatible ' that they cannot be reconciled for the benefit of a leasing business. But are the imperatives of innovation and compliance always mutually exclusive? This article explores these very different but perhaps not always incompatible concerns.
The Current Regulatory Climate
Most equipment leasing companies are coming to grips with the increasing demands imposed on the industry (or closely related industries, such as commercial banking) by a panoply of new federal and state statutes and related regulations. These include, among others:
- The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, with its financial disclosure requirements, scrutiny of off-balance-sheet financing structures, punishment of “white collar” crimes, and related costs of compliance and reporting.
- The Third Basel Accord (Basel III), requiring greater levels of stress testing, increased capital adequacy and liquidity provisions, and, again, related costs of compliance.
- The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the 800-pound gorilla of the current business regulatory world, with its abundant new federal agencies (FSOC, CFPB, OFR, etc., etc.), its still to come Section 1071 data gathering and reporting requirements for non-bank finance companies, its requirement for corporate “living wills,” its new risk retention (“skin in the game”) rules and credit reporting requirements, its myriad other new regulatory and reporting strictures, and, of course, its related burdens and costs of compliance.
- Many others yet to come, including the PPACA (“Obamacare”), which may affect a number of industries impacting equipment leasing; HIPAA, which affects the retention and use of confidential personal information; ECOA, which is amended by Dodd-Frank to include new regulations for non-bank financial institutions; FCRA; and others too numerous to mention.
Many of these increasingly burdensome requirements are well known in the equipment leasing industry, and all have one thing in common ' ever-increasing costs of compliance, both in time and in financial resources.
Yachts, Jets, Horses & Hooch: Specialized Commercial Leasing Models
Defining commercial real estate asset class is essentially a property explaining how it identifies — not necessarily what its original intention was or what others think it ought to be. This article discusses, from a general issue-spot and contextual analysis perspective, how lawyers ought to think about specialized leasing formats and the regulatory backdrops that may inform what the documentation needs to contain for compliance purposes.
Hyperlinked Documents: The Latest e-Discovery Challenge
As courts and discovery experts debate whether hyperlinked content should be treated the same as traditional attachments, legal practitioners are grappling with the technical and legal complexities of collecting, analyzing and reviewing these documents in real-world cases.
Identifying Your Practice's Differentiator
How to Convey Your Merits In a Way That Earns Trust, Clients and Distinctions Just as no two individuals have the exact same face, no two lawyers practice in their respective fields or serve clients in the exact same way. Think of this as a "Unique Value Proposition." Internal consideration about what you uniquely bring to your clients, colleagues, firm and industry can provide untold benefits for your law practice.
Risks and Ad Fraud Protection In Digital Advertising
The ever-evolving digital marketing landscape, coupled with the industry-wide adoption of programmatic advertising, poses a significant threat to the effectiveness and integrity of digital advertising campaigns. This article explores various risks to digital advertising from pixel stuffing and ad stacking to domain spoofing and bots. It will also explore what should be done to ensure ad fraud protection and improve effectiveness.
Turning Business Development Plans Into Reality
This article offers practical insights and best practices to navigate the path from roadmap to rainmaking, ensuring your business development efforts are not just sporadic bursts of activity, but an integrated part of your daily success.