Search results for

The legal struggle over Argentina’s failure to pay holdout creditors has led the market to question if it is now time to tweak the historically obscure sovereign pari passu clause

New beneficial ownership and information disclosure rules affect eurobond and other financing structures in Russia

The first Indian equity offering to include a safety net provision since 2006, has called into question regulatory proposals on safety net norms. Here's why

More and more foreign companies are utilising UK schemes of arrangement. It begs the question, what are the limits of this restructuring tool?

Carlos Fradique Méndez Lucas Moreno In late December 2012 Colombian Congress passed Law 1607, which introduces significant changes to Colombian tax law, with some provisions particularly relevant to the structuring of inbound and outbound financial transactions. This article, very briefly and generally describes some of the most salient features of the tax reform, with the proviso that the specific details and implementing rules and regulations are to be taken into account in specific cases given the complexity of the subject matters. The tax reform generally reduces the withholding tax rate applicable to gross payments to foreign portfolio investors from 33% to 14%. The 14% rate is generally applicable, unless the foreign investor is located in a tax haven (as indicated in a blacklist to be published by the Colombian Government), in which case the applicable withholding rate would be 25%. While dividends are not typically subject to double taxation, the 14% reduced withholding rate would not apply (and a 25% withholding rate would be applicable instead) to dividend payments subject to taxes in Colombia at the shareholder level.

My crystal ball has not been working perfectly lately. But based on information provided by clients, banks and the market in general, it is possible to make some predictions of how capital and financial markets will perform in 2013.

Jaime de la Torre Viscasillas Law 9/2012 on the restructuring and resolution of credit entities was approved on November 14 2012. The law was approved based on Royal Decree-Law 24/2012, on the restructuring and resolution of credit entities, which implemented commitments of the Spanish government assumed in its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreed with the international authorities on July 20 2011. The MOU established, among others, that real estate-related assets of banks that require state aid must be transferred to an asset management company. For this purpose, in December 2012, an asset management company named Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria (AMC or Sareb) was incorporated. The AMC, through the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB), had a public participation lower than 50%. The purpose of this company is the tenancy, management, acquisition and transfer of so-called troubled assets. It is also authorised to issue obligations or other debt instruments (with no limits on the amounts).

US banks should brace themselves for stronger competition enforcement throughout President Obama's second term, a former Department of Justice (DoJ) antitrust official has warned.

What awaits hybrid bond investors in 2014

Patricia Aracely Solórzano Flores The use of ATMs (automatic teller machines) has become an important part of our lives; their popularity relies on the fact that they allow card holders to have quick and easy access to cash whenever they need it, thus avoiding the risk of getting robbed or losing money. However, due to technological advances, the security provided by ATMs is becoming outdated. Yet the use of security measures to protect users from being victims of crime is compulsory. Based on this necessity, and on the increasing number of complaints received at the Financial User Protection Office from ATM users, on December 6 2012 the Honduran Banking and Insurances National Commission issued the Safety Standards for Operating ATMs (Safety Standards). This represents the general trend of financial regulation in Honduras, where the user has become the central figure. Before the Safety Standards, card issuers were only required to implement proper measures to identify the card holder, but there were no rules regulating physical safety at ATMs. Today, according to the Safety Standards, ATM owners must comply with security guidelines, such as (i) employ mechanisms that guarantee the privacy of the transactions made in them, so that the information used is not available to third parties; (ii) take appropriate security measures in the places where ATMs are installed; video cameras must have good resolution for recording and storing images and movements of the events that occur at ATMs, and should allow the identification of the ATM user; (iii) external ATMs must be installed in an enclosure, the access door must have an internal mechanical locking device, to prevent third party access into the enclosure when the client or user is using the ATM, or if it is not in an enclosure then it must have physical security (a security guard) during public opening hours, or when the use of the ATM requires so.