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Elias Neocleous The Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law, Law 144(I) of 2007, requires Cyprus Investment Firms (CIFs) that hold clients' funds to take every possible measure to protect their clients' interests. The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued detailed guidance to CIFs regarding these obligations in 2012 in its Directive DI144-2007-01, which requires CIFs to have adequate arrangements in place to minimise the risk of loss or diminution of clients' assets as a result of misuse, fraud, poor administration, inadequate record keeping or negligence. CySEC has recently issued a reminder to CIFs that maintain a merchant account for the clearing or settlement of payment transactions that any such merchant account must be completely segregated and may not be used by anyone other than the CIF. Under no circumstances may CIFs' merchant accounts be used by connected persons or third parties, as this does not provide the required degree of segregation and protection of client funds.

Diego Alejos Rivera The market for securities and commodities in Guatemala operates within the legal framework provided by the Securities and Commodities Market Act. The regulation contained in this Act established the playing field in which securities and commodities are negotiated as well as setting out the parameters through which key players in the market behave. Although the Securities and Commodities Market Act is 18 years old and was amended once in 2008, the market remains undeveloped in Guatemala, as the negotiation of securities through public or private placements is limited. To counteract this, the Monetary Board is seeking to pass a new law, which will regulate the market and its players. The Monetary Board through this bill seeks to facilitate the integration and eventual development of the market in Guatemala by substantially modernising the legislation.

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão Following Notice no 009/2008-AMCM the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM) under its supervision power, issued new guidelines to be complied with by insurance institutions and the insurance intermediaries. These guidelines take into account the subsequent developments on anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) matters, including the revisions introduced by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) in relation to international AML/CFT standards in February 2012. These guidelines are annexed to Notice no 015/2014-AMCM that came into force on January 2 2015, revoking Notice no 009/2008-AMCM.

Aksel Joachim Hageler Thomas Sando On March 4 2015, the Norwegian Competition Authority approved Coop's acquisition of rival grocery chain Ica. The decision ended a saga which has occupied the Competition Authority and the relevant market players for years. The decision also marked the second time in less than eight years that a foreign grocery chain has exited the Norwegian market. German Lidl previously aborted its attempt at penetrating the Norwegian market in 2007. While Coop has emerged as the winner among the grocery chains in the struggle for Ica, the decision leaves some of the spoils for both chains Norgesgruppen and Bunnpris. In the merger decision, the Competition Authority compelled Coop to divest 93 of Ica's stores to these two competitors, apparently leaving no room for either foreign buyers or other Norwegian players.

Maria Papatsoris Under Law 6 of February 3 1997, the National Authority of Public Services (ASEP) in Panama is entitled to regulate the energy industry. Its purpose includes securing the availability of an efficient energy policy capable of supplying the country's energy demand, while meeting economic, social, and financial viability criteria. As a consequence of the energy crisis and the state's interest in promoting the use of renewable energy resources, mitigating adverse environmental impacts, and reducing dependence on traditional fossil fuels by means of Law 43 of August 9 2012, Law 6 was modified. It now allows the purchase of power and energy through special public tender processes, approved by ASEP and subject to the energy guidelines issued by the National Energy Secretariat, which have their own rules and are more expeditious.

Daniel Futej Cyril Hric The Slovak banking sector has faced new challenges in recent months resulting from international and European measures against tax fraud and tax evasion. As complexity increases, the need for more intensive cooperation in tax matters among jurisdictions becomes necessary. Slovak tax authorities need to have control over the proper fulfilment of tax obligations, with effective exchange of information on a European and international level. This topic has been discussed extensively over the past years on an EU and OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) level. The reason for such discussions is mainly down to increasing: (i) mobility of taxpayers; (ii) cross-border transactions; and of (iii) internationalisation of financial instruments. Such development requires effective measures beyond the powers of control at a national level, as respective states cannot manage their internal taxation systems (especially for direct taxation) without receiving information from other states. The efforts of recent months has resulted in the adoption of: (i) the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on the implementation of the global standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information at the OECD's Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (MCA Agreement); and (ii) a political agreement on a revised version Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (DAC).

Anna Pinedo Regulators and lawmakers in the US continue to review and consider measures that may promote capital formation for smaller and emerging companies. Although the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the US in 2014 reached highs not seen since the early 2000s, there are a few important observations. Companies continue to rely heavily on private financings and only pursue IPOs once they have attained a significant size or maturity. Often, institutional investors participate in private placements that almost serve as surrogates for traditional IPOs as the size of pre-public, later stage private placements has grown significantly. The median size of IPOs remains high – there are relatively few IPOs in which the offering proceeds are less than $100 million. This dynamic has resulted in a need to ensure that there are more liquidity opportunities for the holders of securities in privately held companies.

Thai law governing surety and mortgages is found in the Civil and Commercial Code (CCC) and has been relatively stable over the years. However, the amendments described in our November 2014 briefing are already out of date.

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

The Libor scandal fundamentally changed global regulatory enforcement. As Cleary Gottlieb's Jonathan Kelly explains, today, institutions are increasingly being deputised to police themselves