Search results for

Continuing its efforts to promote transparency, Vietnam's Ministry of Finance issued Circular No 52/2012/TT-BTC on April 5 2012, guiding the disclosure of information on the securities market (Circular 52). This came into effect from June 1 2012, replacing Circular No 09/2010/TT-BTC (Circular 09). In addition to Circular 52, the State Securities Commission (SSC) promulgated Decision No 515/QD-UBCK dated June 25 2012 enabling the disclosure of information on the SSC website (Decision 515).

Gustavo Vega Arrazola Savings and Credit Entities (SCEs) are regulated financial institutions of private capital authorised to develop credit and lending activities. In El Salvador, the operation of SCEs is governed by the Law of Cooperative Banks and Savings and Credit Entities, which came into force on July 1 2001, and was amended in January 1 2009 to its current regime. SCEs are monitored by the Superintendency of the Financial System. As regulated financial institutions, SCEs are subject to many Banking Law provisions. SCEs can be authorised to accept deposits from the public; nevertheless they can operate as SCEs without the authorisation to accept deposits, just developing lending and credit activities.

Eduardo Guevara In 2007, Peru's first gas supply agreement for the development of a fertilizer plant was granted through a private bid. This was the first step in the development of the country's petrochemical industry. Simultaneously the Peruvian government granted certain benefits, including tax stability, based on the long-term investment required for the development of this kind of project. In the following years, new projects appeared for the development of ammonium nitrate plants, as well as an ethane project. Important amounts of investments were announced, and various authorities announced future plants in their regions.

Jaime de la Torre Viscasillas On August 31 2012, the Spanish government approved Royal Decree-Law 24/2012 on the restructuring and resolution of credit entities, which implements its commitments assumed in the Memorandum of Understanding agreed with Eurogroup on July 2011 and the proposal for a Directive establishing a framework for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms that is being discussed at the EU Parliament. Within the next three months, the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) will incorporate an asset management company named Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria, which will be owned by the FROB, and financial entities (public participation must be less than 50%). The purpose of this company will be the tenancy, management, acquisition and transfer of troubled assets, and it will be authorised to issue obligations or other debt instruments (with no limits on the amounts).

The Central Bank of Cyprus has announced that it has commissioned an independent review of the domestic banking system at the request of the so-called troika (the tripartite committee of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund that is coordinating assistance under EU support mechanisms). The exercise will cover the principal commercial banks as well as the Co-operative Central Bank and a representative sample of affiliated cooperative credit institutions. It will include an asset quality review and a bottom-up stress test aimed at determining the capital needs of each participating institution.

Shearman & Sterling's Financial Institutions Advisory and Financial Regulatory group head, Barnabas Reynolds, outlines why the entire regulatory effort to tackle shadow banking could be one step too far

Zambia has become the latest Sub-Saharan sovereign to tap the international capital markets, issuing its inaugural sovereign bond.

For asset managers willing to make their products attractive to a market coming to terms with Solvency II, the potential rewards are huge

Jane Sim Serene Sia Through a press release on October 3 2012, Singapore's Ministry of Finance (MOF) confirmed that it has completed its review of the Companies Act. Following the public consultation carried out in 2011, the MOF has accepted 192 and modified 17 recommendations of the Steering Committee. This is the largest number of changes to the Act since it was enacted in 1967. The wide ranging changes are aimed at maintaining Singapore's competitiveness as a business hub, reduce regulatory burden and compliance costs for companies, provide greater flexibility for companies, and to improve the country's corporate governance landscape. Most importantly, it will bring benefits to various stakeholder groups such as companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), retail investors and company directors. Following are some of the noteworthy changes:

The US lateral hire market hummed along in October, with firms picking up two or more partners at a time. It reached something of a milestone on October 11, when AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD announced that a seven-partner corporate and regulatory team had joined its Dallas office from Haynes and Boone. Akin Gump's corporate practice gained Tom Yang, Garrett DeVries and Matt Zmigrosky, who specialise in capital markets, securities, and M&A. The firm's white-collar defence and litigation practice gained Marty Brimmage Jr, Mike Warnecke, Arnold Spencer, and Sarah Teachout.