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Less reverence should be paid to financial stability Recommendations in last month's UK banking standards report are tipped to be implemented more quickly than the Wheatley Review, Vickers Report and Liikanen Report. But market participants fear the report risks eroding the competitiveness of the UK banking system.

Virginia Tam, K&L Gates LINKLATERS has become the latest international outfit to open in South Korea, gaining approval from the Ministry of Finance. Capital markets partner Hyung Ahn will head up the new operation alongside banking and projects partner Stephen le Vesconte and M&A counsel Kyungseok Kim. In other firm news EVERSHEDS has hired energy partner Ingrid Zhu-Clark from Morgan Lewis & Bockius to head up its newly opened Beijing office. The other resident partner will be corporate focused Jay Ze. The launch is part of the firm's plans to enhance its global energy practice. Elsewhere in Beijing, AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD hired corporate partner Chen Li away from fellow US firm Milbank. Among the domestic firms HAN KUN LAW OFFICES looked to Concord & Partners for its latest hire, welcoming on-board corporate partner Jun He. In Shanghai, HAYNES AND BOONE welcomed on-board corporate partner Liza Mark from Dorsey & Whitney.

Mian Muhammad Nazir Derivatives are one of the most important techniques that financial institutions employ to manage certain risks. However, the ability of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) to benefit from financial derivatives for risk mitigation purposes is limited as many of the conventional derivatives, in their current form and substance, do not align with the principles of shariah. Many IFIs use shariah-compliant alternatives of most of the financial derivatives in accordance with the guidance of their shariah boards. These alternatives appear to meet the shariah requirements in respect of the form; nonetheless, there remain many issues from the substance perspective that need to be considered seriously in order to have a clear and uniform position throughout the system of Islamic banking, sooner rather than later. Simpler forms of financial derivatives that aim to serve purely as risk mitigation techniques can easily be transformed into shariah-compliant instruments with a wider shariah acceptability. However, some of the more complex and exotic derivatives (particularly credit-linked notes) that entail a dominant financial gain with a possibility of excessive risk will certainly be viewed as instruments breaching shariah principles which prohibit speculation, gambling and so on. Such instruments are not purely for risk mitigation purposes. The ability of IFIs to benefit from such instruments will certainly raise questions and hence affect the overall credibility of Islamic banking and finance, which so far has narrowly escaped the negative effect of such products due to the absence of shariah clearance from the shariah boards.

Map and data showing issuance across the world, courtesy of Goldman Sachs, Euroweek and The Cover

How should banks’ CCP default fund exposures be calculated?

Daniel Futej Rudolf Sivak Radka Gerzova Recently, two amendments were passed introducing novelties into the public procurement process in Slovakia. The changes do not enter into force at once, but will take effect gradually up to January 1 2014; however, most of the changes will already be effective as of July 1 2013. A new obligation to use an electronic auction by respective authority will apply only to goods which are readily available on the market. As regards other goods, services and construction works, it will be up to the authority whether it will use an electronic auction. It is not clear what criteria should be used when the authority is deciding whether or not it will use an electronic auction.

After five years of severe recession and price adjustments to real-estate assets in Spain, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. This good news in the Spanish real estate market is largely due to key structural modifications that should help the cycle change and increase the appetite of international investors.

Pedro Dittrich Having not held auctions of areas for exploration and production of oil and gas since 2008, the Brazilian government decided to hold three bidding rounds in 2013: the 11th bidding round, which took place in May; the first pre-salt bidding round, to be held on October 22, certainly the biggest auction to be held in the sector; and the 12th bidding round, focused on the production of unconventional gas. Such initiatives have affected substantially all aspects of the oil and gas industry, creating various investment opportunities in the country. The 11th round presented very good results. Thirty winning companies, of which 18 were foreign, auctioned 144 onshore and offshore blocks in 11 sedimentary basins. Many records were achieved, such as the record number of 63 qualified companies to submit proposals, a record signing bonus ($1.4 billion in total), and the highest bid for a single block ever offered in Brazil ($172.5 million). All these numbers show the confidence of investors in the Brazilian opportunities for oil and gas.

Some ambitious ideas are driving the transformation of Mongolia’s capital markets. Here’s the inside story on what next to expect from the frontier

Johan Christian Kongsli, Karl Rosén and Børge Grøttjord of Grette offer a detailed overview of covered bond legislation in Norway