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On May 23 2017, Law 3/17, which amends the law on the prevention of money laundering activities – Law 2/2006 (AML Law) – came into force. (Further details of the objectives and particulars of the amendments can be found in the March 2017 Macau briefing here: www.iflr.com/Article/3664320/Macau-AML-framework-developments.html).

The Republic of Panama has signed over 10 tax information exchange agreements (TIEA) with countries such as Canada, Finland, Denmark, the US, and Japan, eight of which are in force. The majority of Panama's signed TIEAs contain an exchange of information clause upon request.

Transfer limits are affecting liquidity. Changes need to be made to the framework to allow more flexibility

Developed countries have built the required infrastructure in most of the various sectors, including ports, railways, energy and sanitation. There is a sector that has been consistently growing in recent years, one which is in constant evolution and which continues to advance in leaps and bounds: the technology sector.

A brief summary of recent legal developments in Thailand affecting doing business in the country follows.

Motorways and expressways have long been viewed as a means of attracting investment and advancing the economic situation of the given locality. The construction of motorways is, however, a costly and time-consuming endeavour right from the very beginning in the authorisation process phase, and the entire process is rife with problems. New legislation came into force in early June 2017 in an effort to promote the construction of motorways. It is intended to reduce the time required for the authorisation process.

On January 1 2017, the Swiss domestic legislation on the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) entered into force and the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (SFTA) published guidelines specifying the crucial aspects of the legislation for practical use. Under the AEOI, Swiss financial institutions (FI) will collect and exchange relevant financial information on 'reported persons' with Switzerland's partner states. By the same token, Switzerland will receive data collected on Swiss resident reported persons from Switzerland's partner states. The exchanged information will be used for domestic taxation purposes in the state of residence of the reported persons.

Dennis M Kelleher, president and CEO, Better Markets and Peter J Wallison, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute share their views on how the landmark legislation has impacted the financial services sector

A new competition law is scheduled to be enacted in 2018 and take effect in 2019. Currently, legislators are collecting public opinions on the second draft of this legislation, one of the hot topics currently being discussed by legal practitioners. One of the most important points to consider is that unlike the current regulations which do not clearly govern foreign entities, the draft law expressly provides that foreign entities and anti-competitive activities, including economic concentrations (ECs) which are performed outside of Vietnam but would cause a restriction of competition in Vietnam market, shall be subject to this legislation. Therefore, M&A deals between offshore entities in relation to indirect equity interests in a Vietnam-based entity will come under the oversight of the Vietnamese competition authorities.

Dieter Grünblatt, Stefan Kramer and Benedikt Maurenbrecher of Homburger explore structuring options for international and domestic covered bonds involving a Swiss issuer