St Mildrith Government Social Media Page

[Saint Mildrith]

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Weet-Bix is the social media page of the St Mildrith Government's National Assembly. It is managed by a committee of nine lawmakers who are appointed to examine, consider, and report on matters concerning governance and administration in the Principality of St Mildrith.


Issues

• August 14, 2020
• August 15, 2020
• August 17, 2020

Copyright: © St Mildrith Parliamentary Library, 2022. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. You are free to copy, distribute and adapt the work, as long as you attribute the work to claudiaintern@libraryofparliament.govt.sm and abide by the other licence terms.

[Saint Mildrith]

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Elisabeth Rose Griffin
@HRHPrincesselisa

Posted something a while ago:

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Dear Committee Members,

St Mildrith’s economic indicators have taken on a slightly weaker tone over the past few weeks, as the economic impacts of COVID-19 Alert Level 2 containment measures—introduced to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus in St Mildrith—have counteracted the stronger growth in employment in our country’s oil and gas industry and supporting supply and investment sectors.

The Ministry of Business and Enterprise estimated that the economy will shrink by almost 10 per cent during Alert Level 2. Increasing restrictions to Level 3 would cost the economy around $200 million every week. Thousands of hardworking families and small business owners would be hit hard. There’d be more borrowing too—another $10 billion to be added. A small country like St Mildrith could not afford to lose $200 million every week and borrow $10 billion willy-nilly.

Finally, a very precise communication was received by my office, saying that the central bank will keep its stance of monetary policy unchanged at 15 basis points—the Governor has ruled out a negative Official Bank Rate this week.

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❀❀ @HRHPrincesselisa to Embassies and Consulates St Mildrith on Monthly Economic Indicators. ❀❀

#nationstates2020

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111 Winks

[Saint Mildrith]

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St Mildrith Ministry of Education
@EducationGovtSM

Posted something a while ago:

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Speaking on behalf of more than 5,000 teachers and school support staff in St Mildrith, we are pleased to hear that the National Assembly has decided to pass the Social Investment (Education) Amendment Law. We hope that this additional spending package will help to ameliorate the effects of social disadvantages that depress student performance in our schools.

But this new spending decision by the government will not make the most learning impact if not targetted at the right kids and the right schools at the right time. We are asking the government to reassess the existing zoning system in place. The School Enrolment and School Zones are an outdated system of education that was eroded internally in the early twentieth century: schools in expensive suburbs have regularly received more funding on top of the millions in donations they already received, whether from parents or other sources.

Ultimately, we hope that this new round of funding will help some of our most disadvantaged children and schools—to continue making inclusive education a reality.

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❀❀ @EducationGovtSM to TV Two on the Social Investment (Education) Amendment Law. ❀❀

#nationstates2020

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700 Winks

[Saint Mildrith]

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Posted something a while ago:

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You and Your Finance—by specialist banking and finance lawyer Laura Schütz

By the time you read this page we will be heading into the month of September. The end of a financial year is the most crucial time to take a step back and consider the bigger picture. From the cramped office overlooking Colonial Quay, as a member of the transactional banking and finance group at Ardenfontein Köhler, I’ve worked with a diverse range of clients across domestic and international banking and finance transactions. I am fast approaching my 11 years in practice and I have been reflecting on my somewhat short experience as a specialist banking and finance lawyer over that time.

When I first started “fresh out of uni” as a junior finance lawyer to advise borrowers and lenders in credit contracts and related statutes, including the requirements of the Consumer Credit Protection Law and the Truth in Credit Contracts Amendment Law, the process was more calm, dignified, and unhurried; only involved papers and transactions took time. We even visited the other firm across the street with our cheque for the purchase price. We then walked back to our firm with the title documents and mailed them to the post office for submission.

One of the most important issues with financial product development transaction was finding the title document for our bank clients so it could be exchanged to be sent to the Merchant Building Society to be updated with the new information. Unlike more difficult tasks such as acquisition financing and trade and receivables finance, financial product development was, in the main a relatively dull and uninspiring but predictable process which was completed by most St Mildrith banking and finance lawyers as a vital part of each practice. Most specialist finance and banking lawyers in our small country were very well acquainted with the process and could do it well.

However, in the past 11 years the process has been changed in a fundamental way. With the introduction of new technologies, what was comparatively simple has grown to be more and the compliance mechanism seen at every step of the way has greatly increased. The first important change was the expansion of the Ministry of Business and Enterprise’s Internet Archive which moved all the title records in St Mildrith from paper to electronic records. Over time the registration process was also transferred to an entirely electronic system to go with online banking. Overall, the digitisation of government services was a good step forward that has allowed ownership to be easily accessed, revised and streamlined. But, while it was another important part of the evolution of this small country’s financial regulation and supervision it was also the first of many changes which have made financial product development and transaction record keeping more complicated.

Over the years we have witnessed the introduction of further auditing, compliance, reform and record keeping. Two of the most visible consequences of the changes are, I believe, a lack of trust in the parties who are involved in the process and a desire to record and keep those records for perpetuity. The days of two lawyers meeting over tea to exchange cheques and documents are long gone. This is disheartening as the more we are sitting at our computer and the less we see each other, the less we trust each other. This cycle is in my mind self-perpetuating. As we trust each other less we do not feel trust. As we are audited more we worry about our own interests and we are encouraged to act cautiously. I don’t truthfully believe all the new changes in compliance have reduced the number of issues and unsatisfactory outcomes for clients in the process.

The introduction of more compliance through new legislation has seen financial product development, regulatory and structured transaction becoming more complicated, costly and specialised. The precision required by participants has become much more important to a successful transaction and perpetual record keeping. I am especially seeing the number of junior lawyers willing to carry out financial services regulatory is declining. New graduates and transferring lawyers would instead choose less burdensome tasks such as property financing.

With the introduction of new technologies and norms, as the law becomes more challenging it becomes critical that you receive the right advice from lawyers who can monitor your risks and make the process as smooth and easy as possible because they know the law. At Ardenfontein Köhler we are more than ready to do that for your next important project and transaction.

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909 Winks