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Ignacio Buil Aldana José Luis Lucena Spanish debt is in the spotlight, and it will continue to be for a while – no market player questions this. However, one preoccupation remains: can equity be crammed-down under Spanish insolvency law? Unfortunately, the answer for the moment is no. Existing regulations do not provide lenders with tools to forcefully cram down the equity in those cases where the latter has no interest. In fact, Spanish debt-for-equity swaps need the consent of shareholders at all times.

France's stock market watchdog has confirmed that it will not implement regulations on high frequency trading (HFT) that would clash with Europe-wide rules.

Bank of China's RMB 39.94 billion ($6.5 billion) additional tier 1 (AT1) offering proved the depth of Asia's capital markets. The bank's innovative structure has also set a precedent for the rest of the industry.

The Capital Markets Law 6362 (CML) was adopted on December 30 2013. Since then, the Capital Markets Board of Turkey (CMB) has been revising and updating the relevant secondary legislation in line with the CML, and the demands, practices and necessities in the capital markets. Within this framework, the CMB has issued and changed major communiques governing capital markets activities, one of which is the enactment of Communiqué III/37.1 on the Principles of Investment Services and Ancillary Services (Communique). The Communique clarifies rules and principles applicable to different types of investment services that can be conducted by licensed intermediary institutions and, contrary to previous legislation, it regulates over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives transactions as licensed activities. Having said that, an exception is provided for activities of foreign financial institutions which are conducted on a reverse enquiry basis.

Countries across the Asia Pacific are trying to manage domestic companies' foreign currency exposure. It's prompted not only by rumours that the US is considering ending quantitative easing, but also the European Central Bank's plans to embark on a similar bond buying programme.

Soonghee Lee Youngwoo Park The Korea Exchange (KRX) opened the marketplace for exchange traded notes (ETN) on November 17 2014. ETN are derivative combined securities that guarantee the same rate of return as that of the underlying index at maturity. They are simpler than equity-linked securities (ELS) in structure and tradable prior to maturity. Since they are derivative combined securities, ETN have the same legal characteristics as equity linked warrants (ELW) and ELS, but differ in structure from ELW and ELS because they are a product linked to the underlying index. Moreover, although ETN provide the return in a similar manner as exchange traded funds (ETF) since both are indexed to the underlying asset, ETN differ from ETF in that they provide a return based on the underlying index at maturity after subtracting the fund fees. Participants of the capital market anticipate that the ETN market, introduced in an effort to advance the Korean derivative products market, will satisfy ordinary investors' demand for a variety of new financial products in the existing low growth, low interest rate environment. Participants also believe that securities firms would be afforded an opportunity to increase their profitability and competitiveness from more varied product offerings. The backdrop for introduction of the ETN marketplace can be explained as follows. The number of investors who are seeking medium risk and rate of return, rather than traditional products such as stocks and bonds, increased in the rapidly aging society. In addition, there arose the need to develop new financial products (such as index linked structured products) so that ordinary investors could make investments in more varied product offerings. Commentators anticipate that there will be more investment opportunities for ordinary investors because the introduction of ETN allows direct investment with a smaller investment amount in various asset classes, while it was previously difficult for such investors to understand and compare the profit structures of derivative combined securities products. Moreover, if index-linked structured products that were previously traded outside the exchange begin to be traded on the exchange, then issues such as misselling, system risk, and low price transparency would be resolved. This would lead to better protection for investors, and ultimately, the creation of profitable products for securities firms. On the other hand, while various pensions and funds are important institutional investors that make the market and provide liquidity as liquidity providers, it has been reported that pensions and funds would not participate in the ETN market in the early stage of the launch because of internal fund management regulations, tax issues, and lack of perceived attractiveness of the market. Therefore, appropriate measures need to be provided to deal with such issues.

Discussion about how to tackle market structure and the opaque activities of dark pools has left one group feeling a little left out: the regulated.

Daniel Bader Ruth Bloch-Riemer In a popular referendum on November 30 2014, Swiss voters decided by a clear majority of 59.2% on the retention of the lump-sum taxation regime on a federal, cantonal and communal level. A separate vote in the Canton of Geneva had the same result on the cantonal level in Geneva: a majority of 68.7% of the Geneva voters decided on the retention of the lump-sum taxation regime on the Geneva cantonal level. Besides the retention of the lump-sum taxation regime, Swiss voters also clearly decided against the so-called Ecopop referendum, which would have foreseen restrictive requirements for immigration to Switzerland.

Ananda Radhakrishnan, Norton Rose Fulbright Andrew Smith, Covington & Burling Emil Infante, DLA Piper In New York, KATTEN MUCHIN ROSENMAN lured M&A and capital markets partner S Ward Atterbury from White & Case. Known for having worked on Visa's $17.9 billion floatation in 2008, Atterbury regularly advises lenders and borrowers on credit agreements and convertible notes. Another notable move in New York came in the form of SCHULTE ROTH & ZABEL'S hire of special counsel Frank Steinherr from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. In the restructuring space, BLANK ROME lured Rick Antonoff from Clifford Chance to its office in Manhattan. Antonoff's creditor-focussed restructuring practice counts American Airlines, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arcapita among its clients. WILLIAMS MULLEN added Philip Kennedy as a business and corporate partner in its Raleigh, North Carolina, office. A former in-house counsel at Xerium Technologies, he advises clients on M&A, financings, strategic planning, and regulatory compliance.

Six months after becoming chief of the global OTC trade body, Scott O’Malia discusses his plans for the cross-border derivative market