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A guide to the 20 bank teams at the forefront of legal innovation

Financial services firms have much to gain from investment protections being discussed in the EU-US free trade negotiations

Elias Neocleous On August 8 the Cyprus Government published a roadmap for the lifting of restrictions that were imposed on banking operations in March 2013, and which apply to funds in the domestic banking system at the time of the bail-in. Funds remitted to Cyprus from abroad after March 27 2013 are exempt from the restrictions. The government is committed to restoring the free movement of capital as soon as conditions allow, and indeed a number of relaxations of the controls have already taken place. The roadmap reflects the strategy agreed between the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Cyprus and the troika of international lenders, namely that controls should remain in place only for as long as is strictly necessary, and should be gradually removed through prudent incremental steps, so as to safeguard financial stability.

The massive digitalisation of society has given rise to the need to amend legislation to accommodate the requirements of the new digital era. After years of relatively outdated copyright legislation in the Slovak Republic, an amendment to the Copyright Act was adopted and will come into force on November 1 2013. The amendment simplifies the entire process of obtaining licences to use works. The main difference to the original legislation is that a licence agreement can be concluded by setting out only a minimum of particulars, which are:

Bo Yong Ahn and Sung-Soo Choi of Kim & Chang explain the rapid growth of private equity funds in South Korea in recent years

Christoph Neeracher, Raoul Stocker and Charles Gschwind of Bär & Karrer assess the impact of recent legal and market developments in Switzerland, and future prospects

A selective analysis of English and Luxembourg laws governing financial collateral arrangements shows how the quest for EU-wide common regime has fallen short

Global bank reforms – most notably Basel III – have spurred the development of alternatives to traditional bank lending, and in turn, prompted the increasing sophistication of Asia's DCM. With its focus on emerging markets, Standard Chartered has been at the forefront of DCM's evolution in the region.

Andrés Felipe Parra Ana María Rodríguez In 2011, the Colombian Congress enacted an anti-corruption statute known as Law 1474 of 2011 to bring the country's anti-corruption laws up to international standards. The Law contains provisions that specifically refer to anti-corruption policies and prohibitions that are applicable to all sectors of the economy. Therefore, companies undertaking business activities in Colombia should adopt specifically tailored compliance policies and procedures, including the establishment of compliance manuals, to heighten awareness within the corporate organisation and minimise the potential legal liabilities that may arise out of unlawful conduct by any of its employees or third-parties acting on the entity's behalf. Surprisingly, most companies in Colombia remain unaware of the existence of the new anti-corruption regulations, and the severe penalties that may be imposed for violations of the new law. One of the most significant penalties includes the potential cancellation or suspension of the company's registration with the Chamber of Commerce if it can be proven that the entity has sought to benefit from the commission of a criminal offence against the public administration, such as the commission of a bribery-related offence.

Oene Marseille Emir Nurmansyah Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (the OJK) has recently issued OJK regulation number: 2/POJK.04/2013 on share buybacks issued by issuers or public companies in significantly fluctuating market conditions (the Regulation). The Regulation came into effect on August 23 2013. The relaxation of regulations is supposedly part of the recent support package put in place to aid the downward pressure on the Indonesian currency and downward adjustment in the Indonesian stock market. The Regulation aims to reduce the impact of a significantly fluctuating market and the resulting pressure on the domestic stock exchange, by giving flexibility to the issuer or public company (the Company) to conduct share buybacks without having to violate the prevailing laws and regulations.