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The region’s banks have more than enough Repo markets in Asia are growing and new banking regulations make it more expensive for banks to hold assets on their own books. But collateral in the region must be permitted to move across borders. While dealers in other jurisdictions may complain about a shortage of collateral, the market remains relatively simple in Asia: it's predominantly cash.

The programme officially opened on November 17. But the exchanges involved are already contemplating the link’s evolution

M&A is back with a bang. As always, IFLR1000’s annual rankings identify the law firms that are shaping the markets to watch

Electronic platforms could save corporate bond trading from a liquidity drought. But will they usurp banks?

The city’s use of Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code made the deal similar to both a sovereign and corporate restructure

Panagiotis Drakopoulos Far from the saturated marketplace of Europe, the economies of south-east Europe (SEE) have managed to secure a relatively stable growth potential through targeted financial policy reforms. The years before the financial crisis saw a large investment boom in the region by means of capital inflows, inevitably fuelling market bubbles, such as the one that popped six years ago in the Romanian real estate market. Despite the fact that the financial and liquidity crisis may have bucked the upward trend in the real-estate sector, SEE remains a top European destination for short-term and long-term investment opportunities, multiplying its regional growth dynamics. Regionwise, SEE countries seem to border the rest of Europe both in terms of distance and mentality, as opposed to Asian and African countries.

Julian M Hashim The 2015 budget tabled on October 10 2014 carried the theme People Economy, aimed at improving the well-being of its citizens, and it outlined seven main strategies to achieve that. This article will focus on the first strategy, which is to strengthen economic growth, and in which the Government will continue to provide a conducive and comprehensive ecosystem to accelerate domestic and foreign investment. Among the measures introduced is the strengthening of the Islamic financial market. There will be an introduction of a shariah-compliant investment product called the Investment Account Platform (IAP), which will be implemented with a start-up fund of RM150 million ($45 million). The IAP will provide opportunities to investors in financing entrepreneurial activities and developing viable small and medium enterprises. The IAP will serve as a platform to attract institutional and high net worth individuals to invest in the Islamic financial markets. Individual investors will be given income tax exemption on profits earned from qualifying investments for three consecutive years.

Cao Minh Thi The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) has amended part of the Securities Listing Regulations as of October 31 2014. The amendment is intended to change the listing requirements for stock acquisition rights as a rights offering. A rights offering is a capital increase method using the gratis allotment of stock acquisition rights to existing shareholders. A rights offering where an issuer and a securities company enter into an agreement by which the securities company commits to acquire and exercise the stock acquisition rights that are not exercised within a certain period is called a commitment-type rights offering, while a rights offering under which there is no such agreement is called a non-commitment-type rights offering.

Mauritius has been lauded for giving its citizens a high level of access to banking facilities: the island economy boasts the highest level of financial inclusion in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Forum) urges jurisdictions to adopt high standards of transparency and information exchange in tax matters. The Forum has raised two red flags in Macau, one of its members. The first one is related to bearer shares, which are adverse to fiscal transparency; and the second one is the lack of substance of the concept 'permanent activity' provided for in the Macau Commercial Code for those companies that have not been incorporated under the laws of Macau and do not have their main office in the region. Given this assessment, to achieve a positive result arising in the third phase of the Forum's evaluation (which is of paramount importance for Macau's position in the external markets), the Macau Government, through the Law Reform and International Law Bureau and the Financial Services Bureau, prepared a document released for public consultation in October 2014.