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Daniel Futej Daniel Grigel’ The Slovak Republic is looking to toughen criminal prosecution of corporations. It has proposed a special act be adopted and take effect from May 1 2015 that introduces criminal liability for legal persons. The act's aim is to prevent criminal offences from being concealed behind the activities of corporations, and to penalise corporations that have aided in the commission of a criminal offence. It should be noted that the Slovak Republic is the last of the EU member states to introduce criminal liability for legal persons. However an interim measure was introduced by Slovakia in 2010 that allows the courts to punish a legal person by setting a monetary amount, up to and including the entire assets of that legal person, to be seized. The bill spells out the criminal offences a legal person can be charged with. This includes, inter alia, the endangerment of health through defective food products, endangerment of health through unlicensed medicines, blackmail, illegal construction, endangerment and harm to the environment, bribery, false accusations, and unlawful use of personal data. A legal person is considered criminally liable if a criminal offence is committed in its interests, as a part of or through its activities, and at the same time if it was committed by:

Oene Marseille Emir Nurmansyah Indonesia has shortened its review process by 30 days for the issuance of the principal licence, considered to be the preliminary licence before the final issuance of the borrow-to-use permit (Izin Pinjam Pakai) for its forest areas. Indonesia's Minister of Forestry decreed this in its updated guidelines on the issuance of borrow-to-use permits for forest areas in Indonesia. Under the new guidelines (Regulations of the Ministry of Forestry), the principal licence review process is shortened from a maximum of 120 business days to 90 business days. The review process for the issuance of the borrow-to-use permit itself, for which the principle licence is a prerequisite, remains unchanged (a maximum review period of 90 days is prescribed). Further, the new guidelines have left untouched a bulk of the old procedures and mechanisms. For example, the provisions dealing with general application procedures, requisite supporting documents, applicant's obligations and the required compensatory actions remain the same. The borrow-to-use permit is issued by the Minister of Forestry of Indonesia. This permit is one of the most important, yet onerous licences to obtain before conducting any natural resource exploration and exploitation activities in a forest area in Indonesia. Industries traditionally affected by this permit requirement include oil and gas, geothermal, coal and other minerals, power generation, lumber, and plantations.

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão Teixeira Legislation on anti-money laundering was passed in Macau in 2006, although there were some previous regulations already providing for it. Law 2/2006 on the prevention and repression of money laundering crimes of April 3 2006, established measures aimed at preventing and suppressing the criminal offence of money laundering. It defined the gains of money laundering as any assets derived from the commission, through any form of participation, of a typified act, which would be punishable with a penalty of imprisonment of a maximum term of three years.

Serra Basoglu Gurkaynak of Mehmet Gun & Partners analyses the regulatory framework of M&A transactions in Turkey and offers an overview of activity across the regulated markets

A number of important refinements have been brought to the area of dispute resolution in 2013 to further cement the position of Mauritius as a venue for adjudicating international disputes.

Elias Neocleous The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has issued a circular reminding providers of administrative and corporate services (ASPs) that it supervises their reporting obligations under the Law regulating Companies providing Administrative Services and Related Matters of 2012 (the ASP Law). It draws attention to article 11(1)(c) of the ASP Law, which provides that ASPs whose application for a licence is under consideration by CySEC must comply with the requirements of the ASP Law and CySEC Directive D?144-2007-08 of 2012 for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (the AML Directive).

Carlos Fradique-Mendez María Andrea Estrada Rugeles On March 6 2014, the Colombian Stock Exchange became the fourth stock market in Latin America to adopt a market makers programme (the programme). The programme permits the structuring and implementation of a stockbroker's commitment to buy or sell equity shares, in order to increase liquidity of those shares. BlackRock, general partner of the exchange-traded fund (ETF) iCOLCAP in Colombia, instructed Cititrust (who acts as the ETF's administrator) to enter into an agreement with BTG Pactual Colombia (the market maker), for purposes of providing market-making services to promote the liquidity of the ETF shares. The market maker is required to execute daily transactions on its own behalf, with its own funds and on a permanent basis, entering buy and sell bids over the ETF shares. The agreement was recently approved by the Colombian Stock Exchange, becoming the first market maker in Colombia over equity securities.

Non-banks are a promising source of new finance for Europe’s SMEs. But the CRR and AIFMD are posing structuring challenges

Lawton Camp, Kaye Scholer Vivek Bhatt, K&L Gates The region's fervent lateral hiring of early March carried straight through into April. Offshore firm WALKERS gained Jason Allison as a partner in the global investment funds group in its Grand Cayman office. Allison, who previously worked in the London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and with Maples and Calder in the Caymans, advises banks, companies and fund managers on Cayman Islands corporate transactional and investment funds laws and regulations. In Canada, MCMILLAN welcomed Kip Daechsel, former national co-managing partner of the now-defunct law firm Heenan Blaikie, as a partner in Toronto. Daechsel's expertise covers both M&A and financial regulatory matters. At the time of his hiring at the end of March, Daechsel was the eighth Heenan Blaikie refugee to join McMillan in recent weeks.

German car manufacturer Daimler became the first foreign corporate to sell Chinese onshore bonds, so-called panda bonds, in March. But lawyers believe that unfavourable pricing will limit future deals.