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The US financial system is under threat, and experts believe that the structured finance space is likely to be the cause of the next financial crisis

China's central bank governor Yi Gang announced in April that China would implement six steps to open up the financial sector by the end of 2018. Since then, a number of measures have been taken to progress towards this goal including increased caps on the foreign ownership of securities brokerages, investment funds, futures firms and life companies. A move towards the final removal of caps can be expected within three years. Foreign funded banks can also be allowed to underwrite and sell government bonds in China. Other plans include increasing accessibility to China's equity markets such as through the London-Shanghai Stock Connect. Foreign players like Nomura, JP Morgan and UBS have begun to raise their shareholdings in China. JP Morgan has applied to set up a majority ownership securities firm while UBS has raised its shareholding proportion in UBS Securities from 24.99% to 51% and Nomura has announced a plan to set up a holding firm.

Challenger banks are shaping the future of the market. The larger lenders are paying attention

The country’s regulations regarding short selling in advance of a public offering pose problems but also offer solutions for investors

Cryptocurrencies have become an internationally recognised form of payment and financing with greater capacity, better security and faster settlement than traditional financial structures.

The Macau SAR Legislative Assembly has recently approved the draft of a new Bill to reform the SAR's arbitration framework by unifying and modernising the legislative regimes for both domestic and international commercial arbitration. The draft Bill proposes this will be done by matching the practices and standards defined under the Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law.

On February 28 2018, the Ministry of Justice released the interim proposal concerning the revision of the Companies Act (in relation to corporate governance, and so on) (Interim Proposal) for public comment. Certain revisions proposed in this Interim Proposal will affect existing practices relating to shareholder meetings.

Rusmaini Lenggogeni, Fahrul Yusuf and Harry Kuswara of SSEK look at Indonesia’s clamp down on virtual currencies and the future potential of blockchain

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been in the public spotlight in the last 18 months due to the drastic fluctuations in their values. Although still limited, the number of places where cryptocurrencies can be used as payment has been growing in recent times. However, most countries lack specific regulations on the issuance or use of cryptocurrencies, and there exists no clear definition of their legal nature in terms of whether they could be defined as actual currency or other assets of value, or whether they are just pieces of computing data without any intrinsic value. Due to the growing importance of regulatory aspects and legal identity in civil and criminal law, particularly in relation to confiscation, there is an urgent need to establish an appropriate definition and specify the legal nature of cryptocurrency as soon as possible.

In the latest edition of IFLR's Q&A's series, John Crabb talks to former SEC chair Mary Schapiro about her time in the government, its future and her experience of the private sector