In several recent years, Hong Kong’s equity capital market has raised the most new funds from IPOs, in some of those years raising more than London and New York combined. A global finance centre There were a number of massive listings in the market before the financial crisis, notably of state owned Chinese banks. These gave a strong impetus to the emergence of Hong Kong as a key financial centre ...
The Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) has launched its new research report entitled “Asia’s Financial Services: Ready for the Cloud—A Report on FSI Regulations Impacting Cloud in Asia-Pacific Markets.” SyCipLaw Partner Rose Marie M. King-Dominguez with Senior Associate Ruben P. Acebedo II contributed the information on the Philippines ...
MMF Regulation: The European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) published its report (which includes the draft regulation) (dated 4 March 2015) on the proposed Regulation on Money Market Funds (MMF Regulation). The EU Parliament is scheduled to consider the legislative proposal on 27 to 30 April 2015. ESMA AIFMD Q&AESMA has published updated AIFMD Q&A with new reporting issues and some additional guidance on marketing ...
Private sector, investors and experts agree that the Government of El Salvador has to improve the business climate to attract more national and foreign investment that would contribute to increase the Gross Domestic Product and improve in this way the living conditions of the population ...
A country’s competitiveness depends in part on its capacity to attract foreign investorsinterested in the acquisition of local companies ...
On December 17, 2014, New York Assembly Bill 9933, which amends the Uniform Commercial Code in effect in the state of New York (the “NYUCC”), was signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and took effect immediately. This new law (the “UCC Revisions Law”) includes several changes to Article 9 of the NYUCC (“Article 9”), that governs the creation and perfection of security interests in personal property under New York law ...
On 26 January 2015, President Joko Widodo swore in Mr. Triawan Munaf as the Head of the Creative Economic Board (BEK – Badan Ekonomi Kreatif). BEK is tasked to strengthen the role of creative economic businesses, including protection for Indonesian creative crafts ...
Bank Indonesia issued Circular of Bank Indonesia No. 16/17/DSta, which came into force on 3 November 2014 (SEBI 16/17/DSta), which is a fourth amendment to Circular of Bank Indonesia No. 13/3/DPM on Commercial Bank Daily Report. SEBI 16/17/DSta amends the scope of information to be submitted to Bank Indonesia as well as, additional codes for exempted foreign loans, and additional codes for validation systems ...
IFLR 1000's Michael Washburn interviewed O’Neal Webster’s new Partner, Christopher Simpsonin relation to capital markets trends for an articlepublished on 11February, 2015. Click here to read the article.He noted, among other things, that recent legislation in the BVI, such as the approved managers regime, which Simpson describes as a“lighter-touch” regulation for managers desiring to oversee an investment fund or funds through a BVI entity, is an encouraging trend ...
The SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) yesterday issued a Risk Alert reporting its findings from cybersecurity examinations of registered broker-dealers and investment advisers and stated that it will continue its focus on cybersecurity in 2015 through risk-based examinations. OCIE revealed that most of the examined firms had experienced some type of cyber-attack, primarily through malware and fraudulent emails ...
Australia has a complex system of taxation including a Federal income tax, capital gains tax and goods and services tax (GST) and eight separate State and Territory systems of duties and taxes. Tax planning is therefore important to maximise after-tax investor returns. The following guide sets out some high level issues to consider on a global M&A deal where the target is an Australian company or business or where downstream Australian subsidiaries are involved ...
Earlier this month, President Obama announced historic changes to U.S. policy and relevant regulations regarding diplomatic engagement, travel and trade with Cuba. The White House’s new policy represents the most dramatic shift in U.S. policy to Cuba since the enactment of the embargo in 1961. As a result of this new policy, a number of sectors of the U.S. economy are likely to see new opportunities in Cuban trade ...
IntroductionOn November 26, 2014, the United States Bureau of Economic Analysis (“BEA”) retroactively reinstated data collection requirements to measure foreign direct investment into the United States. The BE-13 survey collects data on the acquisition or establishment of U.S. business enterprises by foreign investors and the expansion of existing United States affiliates of foreign companies that establish new facilities where business is conducted ...
The Banking Bill governs commercial (Bank Umum) and rural (Bank Perkreditan Rakyat) banks (Banks), and provides the procedure and requirements for establishing Banks, the restrictions on foreign ownership in Banks, the criteria for being appointed as senior executives or being controlling shareholders of Banks, and requirements regarding Bank soundness levels. The Banking Bill will replace the current Banking Law No. 7 of 1992 (as amended) ...
On 24 July 2014, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) issued Circular Letter No. 12/SEOJK.07/2014 on The Presentation of Information for Marketing Financial Services or Products (Circular Letter 12). Circular Letter 12 has been in force since 6 August 2014. Circular Letter 12 provides marketing conduct guidelines for financial services providers on directly or indirectly offering their services/products (i.e. websites, commercial advertisments, brochures, telemarketing, etc) ...
On 5 December 2014, the Hong Kong Government formally released its draft legislation to waive stamp duty for the transfer of shares or units of all exchange traded funds (“ETFs”). The Stamp Duty (Amendment) Bill 2014 will be introduced into the Legislative Council on 17 December 2014 (“the Bill”). It is expected to have wide support ...
On November 6, 2014, Law No. 20,789 was published in the Official Gazette, granting legal status to theConsejo de Estabilidad Financiera (Financial Stability Council or “CEF”). The CEF is part of the Ministry of Finance, and was originally created in 2011 by means of a ministerial decree.
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On November 12, 2014, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (“ISDA”) published the ISDA Resolution Stay Protocol (“Protocol”). Eighteen of the world’s largest banks and their affiliates1 (“G-18”) have agreed to sign the Protocol, which is open for adherence and has an effective date of January 1, 2015 ...
This article first appeared in the November 2014 issue of Hong Kong Lawyer, the official journal of The Law Society of Hong Kong. In January 2013, Alexa Lam, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), announced that the SFC and the China Securities and Regulatory Commission (CSRC) planned to implement mutual fund recognition between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese fund products ...
Crowdfunding has many faces. Charitable organisations have received support through this route, as have travelers, athletes, scientists and inventors, and the creators of such humble concepts as making potato salad—a project to which the public contributed over USD 55,000. But often crowdfunding is the main source of financing for innovative ideas which in the long run can drive economic development and positive social changes ...
Amendments to the Corporate Income Tax Act which went into effect on 1 January 2014 provide an opportunity to revive the practice of subparticipation in lending in Poland. Regulations governing subparticipation have been in force since 2004. For tax reasons, however, subparticipation has remained much less popular in Poland than assignment of receivables, despite certain other advantages, particularly the greater ease of selling participation in loans backed by mortgages ...
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced today that it would allow financial institutions to provide their privacy notices to consumers online and would no longer require annual distribution of paper copies, provided that the institutions meet certain requirements. Among other things, companies that rely on this new exemption (1) must not share data in ways that would trigger consumers’ opt-out rights (e.g ...
On September 8, the Canadian Department of Finance announced the signature of a memorandum of agreement (the "Agreement") between the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, and the federal government (the "Participating Jurisdictions") formalizing the terms and conditions of the Cooperative Capital Markets Regulatory System (the "Cooperative System"), a project to set up a national regulator for the Canadian securities industry ...
