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A new law came into force on January 1 2015, intended to protect and motivate whistleblowers. A whistleblower is a natural person who, in good faith, reports something they learn of while at work, that could significantly help to expose activities that are against the public interest. A report is made in good faith if the whistleblower, considering the facts of which he is aware and considering his knowledge, is convinced that what he is reporting is accurate. Apart from the enumerated exceptions (such as the protection of classified information, bank secrets and legal services), public interest reports and disclosures are not considered a breach of confidentiality. The primary goal of the law is to protect the whistleblower from retaliation by the employer. An employer can make a legal act or issue a decision relating to the protected whistleblower only with the consent of the whistleblower or with the prior consent of the labour inspectorate. The consent of the labour inspectorate is not required if the employer's act confers a right on the employee or if it is in relation to termination of employment not associated with the employer's evaluation. The labour inspectorate will grant the employer consent for the proposed act toward the protected whistleblower only if the employer can demonstrate that the proposed act has no connection to the report. If the employer cannot demonstrate this, the labour inspectorate will not grant consent. The legal act will be invalid without the prior consent of the labour inspectorate.

Terje Gulbrandsen On December 10 2014, Oslo Børs (the Oslo Stock Exchange) resolved certain amendments to the listing rules, with the new rules entering into force on January 12 2015. Before the amendments, there had been a requirement that at the time of application for listing on Oslo Børs, the main part of the company's activities must not be in a pre-commercial phase. Directive 2001/34/EC on the admission of securities to official stock exchange listing does not contain any requirement for a company to have reached a commercial phase in order to be listed on a stock exchange, and nor is there any such requirement for any stock exchange comparable to Oslo Børs. Despite this, Oslo Børs has until now found it appropriate to apply such a requirement for listing on it.

Prisna Sungwanna Supattra Sathapornnanon The Thai Board of Investment (BOI) administers the Investment Promotion Act (1977) under which projects are granted investment incentives, guarantees, and rights to own land. These are important factors in securing project financing. The BOI announced a Seven-Year Investment Promotion Strategy (2015 to 2021) following the issue of Announcement No 2/2557 on December 3 2014, which repeals eight past announcements. It includes a new list of activities eligible for promotion, which has a number of changes from former lists. It prescribes new activity-based incentives and merit-based incentives. Activity-based incentives are divided into Group A and Group B, as indicated in the new list. Group A activities receive corporate income tax incentives, machinery and raw materials import duty incentive,s and other non-tax incentives. Group A is divided into four subgroups. Group B activities receive only machinery and raw material import duty incentives and other non-tax incentives. Group B is divided into two subgroups.

Carmen Arribillaga Sorondo Alicia Galindo Aragoncillo The end of the year was extremely busy but successful for the so-called Spanish bad bank, the management company for assets arising from the banking sector reorganisation (Sareb – Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Restructuración Bancaria). This was due to the sale of several portfolios comprising a large volume of credits (including credits to developers and office buildings and subsidised social housing units), loans (both performing and non-performing) and real estate owned to international institutional investors. These portfolios were carefully selected and structured by Sareb's business team together with external financial advisors to maximise its value. The portfolios were offered to institutional investors in an open competitive process in which they had access to all information through a virtual data room to analyse independently, to then place their binding offers. Many of these transactions (for more than €850 million, or $1 billion, in total) were completed at the end of the year due to their complexity and negotiation process.

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

Arendt & Medernach's Alexander Olliges, Stéphane Karolczuk and Anne-Laure Giraudeau explain why the Grand Duchy may prove a stepping stone for Chinese fund managers

Clifford Chance’s Francis Edwards, Terry Yang and Yasuyuki Takayami explain why the global requirement can clash with local confidentiality obligations

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.

Yesterday the Hong Kong Monetary Authority released its second consultation on its resolution and recovery regime. Here’s what you need to know

With shareholder activism likely to make this proxy season a hot one, IFLR asks what companies should prioritise to best prepare