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As its economy begins to cool, Cleary Gottlieb's Richard Cooper and Adam Brenneman assess the position of those with exposure in the Andean nation

As useful as a Russian bailout Rushing through emergency legislation to prop up its troubled lenders is not enough to save Russia from a financial crisis in 2015. On December 22 its central bank had to intervene after a deposit run threatened to bankrupt midsize lender National Trust Bank.

The loosening of US travel and trade restrictions on Cuba opens new opportunities for US financial institutions.

State issuers often include carve outs from their waiver of sovereign immunity. But Clifford Chance’s Robert Trefny explains it's not clear whether the law supports such protections

The likely default of Kaisa called into question the structures of offshore Chinese bonds. Across Asia, restructuring lawyers have more or less thought 'I told you so', as bondholders responded last month by selling their Chinese real-estate holdings in fear of future defaults.

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

Results suggest the UK has toppled the US as the bankruptcy and reorganisation hub of choice

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

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.

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.