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Gustavo Leon-Gomez In Honduras, during the past two decades, credit card legislation has been issued and amended on several occasions in an effort to regulate this important financial sector. These amendments have been mainly motivated by a substantial assymetry between a strong and aggressive financial sector and weak non-educated financial consumers. A fundamental principle of economic theory is that the market for goods and services is regulated by the forces of supply and demand. Theoretically at least, prices, quality, volume and the overall supply of goods and services determine the market's prevailing forces, therefore allowing consumers to make free and informed choices.

Carlos Fradique-Mendez Laura Zarzur In an effort to improve the quality of collateral guarantees in Colombian stock lending, the Colombian Stock Exchange introduced the ability for the originator to discretionally elect the type of collateral from a new set of more liquid guarantees. Formerly, the receptor of the security was authorised to choose the collateral among a particular set of less liquid securities, which caused a lack of market penetration of temporary transfer of securities (TTVs), a problem exacerbated by the low quality of collateral used in TTV transactions.

Christos Christou The sovereign debt crisis in Greece has resulted in an unprecedented plunge of the GDP by 25%, whereas prices in the local real-estate market have fallen as much as 50% since the crisis hit the country at the end of 2008. As a result, huge investment opportunities have arisen, as both the Greek state and the private sector are trying to liquidate as many assets as possible in order to repay their debts. Still, until recently, foreign investors were reluctant to enter an ill-performing economy, despite the impressive adjustment fiscal programme implemented by the Greek Government and the sweeping structural reforms adopted during the last years, which resulted in a public finance surplus for the first time since Greece joined the eurozone in 2002. One of the main reasons for this was the unfavourable taxation status for real estate investments. Two very interesting recent deals, however, show that the country is again open for business. Canadian Fairfax Financial Holdings invested €200 million ($272 million) within the last year in EFG Eurobank Properties, raising their share from 5.7% to 42%. Prem Watsa, Fairfax's CEO, called the deal "a vote of confidence to the prospects of the Greek economy". A few weeks ago, Dutch private equity Invel Real Estate and BGS Real Estate of the Israeli diamond mogul Beny Steinmetz announced a joint purchase of 66% of Pangea real estate investment company (REIC), Ethniki Bank's real estate unit for €653 million, "betting on a recovery in the country's economy". Both deals have one thing in common: they both relate to an investment in a Greek REIC and this should be no surprise.

The rules on financial instruments admitted to a central depository in dematerialised form are laid down in different pieces of legislation, including articles 83-bis onwards of the Financial Consolidated Act and the Bank of Italy/CONSOB regulation of February 22 2008 (the 2008 Regulation).

The lighter side of the past month in the world of financial law

Investors are demanding safer structures now Singapore securitisation might be slowly making a comeback. But deals are far more conservative than those seen in previous years. The securitisation market in Asia has been slow to take off since the global financial crisis. Although Singapore commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) weren't heavily affected during the crisis, investors were sceptical of the product's safety following incidents in the US.

Does the transatlantic OTC derivatives debate need a new direction?

Indonesia has shot itself in the foot with yet another surprise regulatory change. Those looking to tap into its enormous consumer market have touted the country as one of the next big investment opportunities, including it in the next wave of emerging markets acronyms (such as MIST, which also includes Mexico, South Korea, and Turkey).

The growing prominence of European unitranche debt has led to some interesting intercreditor issues

Assad Abdullatiff Mauritius has, over the last two decades, forged a strong reputation as a premier international financial centre. The combination of fiscal and non-fiscal advantages together with the diverse product-base has been the key ingredient of the Mauritius success story. Although Mauritius is better known as a gateway for the structuring of investments into India and increasingly Africa, it is also being used by professional advisers and their high net worth clients as a jurisdiction of choice for private wealth management services. The enactment of the Foundations Act in 2012 has widened the choice of structures available to wealth management specialists. Traditionally, trusts have been the preferred planning tool in the context of wealth management planning for high net worth families. Mauritius law allows for the setting up of various types of trusts – fixed, discretionary, protective, purpose, spendthrift, Sharia-compliant and charitable trusts. A number of high net worth individuals (HNWI) and ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) already use a Mauritius trust for estate, succession planning and family office services.