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Tomasz Konopka Borys D Sawicki In the previous issue, this briefing described a story of Ms X, an accountant at Company A, who was requested to assist in an important secret project for her company. Her main task was to wire funds to an account of (an unknown to her) company in another country, according to the instructions of a top level manager of Company A received by e-mail. Before the secret project had been successfully completed, it turned out that it was a fraud scheme. Unfortunately, the monies were already gone. Because similar situations happen in real life, we decided to offer a glimpse of action that – from the Polish legal perspective – could be taken should the same occur to one's company.

Erik Lind Klaus Henrik Wiese-Hansen Since early 2000, the Norwegian corporate bond market has been transformed. From a small market dominated by domestic utility enterprises, it has changed into a global market characterised by large issue volumes of high-yield (HY) corporate bonds. This makes the Oslo Stock Exchange and Nordic Alternative Bond Market, combined, the third largest market place for HY corporate bonds in the world. In the same period, there has been an increasing number of international issuers and international investors on the Norwegian HY market. In 2009, only three percent of the listed corporate bonds came from foreign issuers. Now the latest figures show that in 2013, the number has increased from three percent to almost 50% and the total kroner figure related to foreign issuers is, as of 2013, approximately NOK 99 billion ($16 billion).

Soonghee Lee The D Group scandal that began in September 2013 spread the news in the market about the mis-selling practices by D Securities. An unprecedented situation unfolded, in which more than 20,000 investors filed complaints against D Securities with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) within a short period of time. It was reported that, to resolve this scandal quickly, the FSS deployed more than 24,000 man-days to inspect the matter. As a result, on July 31 2014, the Financial Disputes Mediation Committee (FDMC) at the FSS rendered a decision that ordered D Securities to compensate some of the investors by paying them back at least 15% and at most 50% of their investment amount. This decision was based on the reasoning that D Securities committed mis-selling, such as advising some of the investors to invest in inappropriate investment products and not having provided adequate explanations at the time of selling corporate bonds and CPs (commercial papers) issued by other D Group affiliates. The FSS announced that 67% of the contracts subject to inspection were found to be cases of mis-selling, that the average portion of compensation for a given amount of investment is 22.9%, and that the investors who were found to be subjected to D Securities' mis-selling practices would be able to recoup a total of 64.3% of the investment amount (after taking into account the compensation that the affiliates of D Group that issued the corporate bonds and CPs would make based on their corporate restructuring plans). If both parties agree to the dispute mediation decision by the FDMC and the decision stands, then the decision would have the same effect as a final decision by the court, and D Securities would have to report the result of its performance to the FSS within 20 days after the decision became finalised. If a party does not accept the dispute mediation decision, then the decision would fail to become established and would not be binding on the parties; therefore, investors would have to resort to other remedial methods such as filing a lawsuit. On the other hand, the FSS limited the cases subject to this instance of dispute mediation to mis-selling cases. It further announced that investors would be able to enforce their rights by separately filing a lawsuit if it is later found that D Securities fraudulently made the sales.

Consumer protection has become a hot topic in Slovakia in recent years, particularly when it comes to unfair business practices used by sellers. To address this issue, the Slovak Parliament passed a new piece of legislation, the so-called Distance Selling Act, which took effect in June 2014. It will increase the level of consumer protection and legal certainty in the relationship between consumers and sellers. In this article, we would like to inform you on the most important changes the new legislation introduces. The Distance Selling Act applies to sales that are made through any form of communication over a distance or without any personal contact between the consumer and the seller. One of the most significant changes is the extension of the time period during which consumers can cancel the purchase contract, which is now 14 calendar days as opposed to the seven-day period under the old regime. In addition, the consumer now has the right to retain the goods until the seller refunds the money already paid as a deposit.

ICMA explains how it is coordinating a wide industry effort to promote the emergence of a pan-European market

As the debt saga continues, attention has turned to its ramifications for future bond offerings and restructures

TPG’s acquisition of up to 75% of Union Bank of Colombo is Sri Lanka’s biggest private equity deal. It also signals increasing interest in the south Asian country

The restructure of Suzlon Energy’s foreign currency convertible bonds is the largest in India to date. It also demonstrates that offshore bondholders and onshore lenders can reach a solution together

Investors must push back against Asia's weakening high-yield covenant packages. Although investor protections remain robust – especially compared to what's seen in the US and Europe – the region's legal frameworks are much less established.

Proposed changes that empower minority shareholders could have unintended side effects. Ogonna Chinedu-Eze, Ozofu Ogiemudia and Folake Elias-Adebowale of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie explain why