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Onshore ChinaCo bankruptcies will continue to prioritise social stability and local interests over more esoteric financial concerns such as capital structures, according to a recent report by Fitch Ratings.

Fitch's managing director for banks has spoken out about the agency's newly-announced plan to downgrade almost a third of Europe's banks in 2015.

As 2015's debt markets heave into life, European high yield's ceaseless covenant war continues. The pushing and pulling over change of control provisions, restricted payment baskets and their ilk is detailed in our annual high yield special focus on page 51.

Non-performing loans are a serious obstacle to the region’s economic recovery. Freshfields’ Agnes Molnar analyses the local and cross-country initiatives that promise to find value in these bad assets

The lighter side of the past month in the world of financial law

Norton Rose Fulbright partners Nigel Dickinson and Daniel Franks, and associate Charlotte Brown explain the key distinctions between European institutions' plans to regulate securities lending and repo transactions

European regulators have refuted allegations that too much regulation has impeded global growth.

Hong Kong and Shanghai captured speakers’ imagination at the 10th annual Asia Capital Markets Forum

Law firms ushered in 2015 with a spate of lateral hires. KING & SPALDING's New York office bolstered its cross-border transactional capability with the addition of Ye Cecilia Hong, who was previously a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese as well as English, Hong advises public and private borrowers and lenders on multijurisdictional distressed financings and restructurings.

Vu Le Bang Under the Ordinance on Foreign Exchange Control of Vietnam, foreign investors participating in business cooperation contacts (FIs) and foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) must open a direct investment capital account (DICA) at an authorised credit institution. Such institution must be one used for investment capital contribution, principal investment capital remittance, profits, and other legitimate receivables. In this regard, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Circular 19/2014/TT-NHNN (Circular 19), effective from Sept 25 2014, to provide further guidelines. Notably, under Circular 19, FIs and FIEs are permitted to open a DICA in Vietnamese dong, which was not permitted previously. A DICA should be used to perform FIE receipt and expenditure loan transactions, regardless of the type (whether a domestic or a foreign loan) and term of the loan (whether short-, medium- or long-term). DICAs were originally used to deal with foreign loan transactions prior to Circular 19, in relation to FIE loan transactions. Further, payments of capital and project transactions in relation to FIEs should be performed through a DICA. While welcoming Circular 19, many banks in Vietnam have so far raised concerns over its strict implementation, and over the increased obligations it imposes. Specifically, if domestic loans are strictly subject to a DICA, it will likely become more burdensome for all the relevant parties, including the borrower, lender, and bank controlling the DICA. More importantly, it has been argued that the wording regarding a DICA could be interpreted as either 'is allowed to use' (meaning optional), or 'has to be used for' (meaning compulsory), in relation to certain activities under Circular 19.