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Which country has the best onshore holding company regime?

For decades, taxpayers have been bedeviled by the distinction between trading in stocks and securities (eligible for a safe harbour) and lending (generally a taxable business).

John Elliott Joseph Bauerschmidt The new year kicked off with a potential watershed moment in China's rapidly developing legal market. DENTONS and Chinese firm DACHENG LAW OFFICES sealed a deal that will see the two firms combining to form a new 6,500 lawyer outfit under a Swiss verein structure–a form of voluntary association which is a popular entry strategy for international firms into domestic markets. The merger will create the world's largest firm by headcount. On top of that, Dacheng then brought in a team of six equity partners from local firm Haworth & Lexon to strengthen its presence in Shanghai. In Australia corporate partner, John Elliott, joined rival global firm NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT in Sydney from independent Clayton Utz. Norton Rose Fulbright was in the news again, relocating its Asia Pacific energy head, Vincent Dwyer, from Sydney to Singapore. Also in Singapore KING & WOOD MALLESONS has been granted a foreign law practice licence by the Attorney General's Chambers in Singapore. Its practice will focus on international funds, energy and resources, and China inbound-outbound work.

The combination of telecommunication companies Oi and PT has taught Brazilian investors the downside of public M&A. A more thorough review of disclosures is likely to occur in future deals.

Institutional investors don't like activism, they like openness. Articles on the topic, including some by IFLR, cite statistics that suggest activist tactics are growing in popularity among institutional investors. A recent study by FTI Consulting, for example, found that 76% support activism, seeing it as an important catalyst for change.

Putri Norlisa Mohd Najib Azleen Mohammed Saleh Effective as of January 2 2015, the base lending rate (BLR) framework was replaced by the base rate (BR) as the new reference rate for retail loan facilities. This forms part of the move to make bank borrowings more transparent for consumers. The effective lending rate (ELR) would be the BR plus a spread. Each financial service provider (FSP) will determine its BR based on its benchmark cost of funds and statutory reserve requirement. The credit risk, liquidity risk, operating cost and the profit margin will be reflected in the spread. Under the new framework, FSPs are required to maintain proper policies and clear governance arrangements for determining the BR, periodic review and changes of the BR. The process, methodology and data used for determining the BR should be documented and made available for review by the Central Bank (Bank Negara Malaysia or BNM) as and when required.

Oene Marseille Emir Nurmansyah Indonesia's Ministry of Trade has issued a regulation requiring the use of a letter of credit (LC) for the export of certain commodities. Under the new regulation, payments for export of crude palm oil, coals, oil and gas, and certain minerals including steel, gold, and nickel are to be done by way of an LC. Payments from export of manufactured goods are exempted from the regulation. The regulation also mandates that the payment price stated in the LC should not be lower than the world market price of the exported goods. Further, the paying bank in this process is required to be a qualified domestic bank (Bank Devisa di dalam negeri). LC payment performed by a foreign branch of an Indonesian-headquartered bank is disallowed.

Luis Gabriel Morcillo-Méndez Maria Camila Ordoñez The Colombian Ministry of Finance enacted Decree 1648 of 2014, by which it incorporated hybrid instruments into the Colombian regulation, particularly in connection with financial institutions. This comes as a result of recommendations made by the Basel Committee on Bank Supervision (BCBS) regarding hybrid instruments and their incorporation as mechanisms for issuers' absorption of losses. By means of such decree, the Ministry included hybrid instruments as part of the additional basic capital of the Colombian institutional entities and established the required criteria for losses absorption. This innovative action allows financial institutions, from now on, to issue hybrid instruments and use them not just as a temporary financing source, but as a future losses absorption mechanism, which will prevent them from an actual liquidation or facilitate their financial recovery.

Oscar Samour Last year, the Salvadoran Congress passed the Investment Funds Law (IFL), which established the possibility of channelling and developing collective investment within the local financial system. As defined in the IFL, an investment fund is a special-purpose vehicle that gathers contributions – generally in cash – from multiple investors to be invested in different types of assets, such as securities, real estate, and financial instruments. Under the IFL, investment funds are administered by a special-purpose stock company (sociedad anónima) called a management company. The management company is created with the sole purpose of investing the contributions from its stockholders – investors – in accordance with its bylaws. The patrimony of the fund is independent from the patrimony of the management company by law, and the contributions from the investors are therefore protected in case of bankruptcy of the management company. Additionally, management companies must design and establish mechanisms for asset and share valuations, and have the proper accounting and operation records as well as a merchandising platform for promoting investment.

Alexei Bonamin The Brazilian mutual fund industry, the sixth largest in the world, has been primarily regulated by Instruction 409 from the Brazilian Securities Commission (Comissão de Valores Mobiliários – CVM) for the past 10 years. On July 1 2015, this will be revoked and replaced by Instruction 555, issued by the CVM on December 17 2014, which will then govern the incorporation, management, functioning and disclosure of information of mutual funds.