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The Central Bank of Cyprus has announced that it has commissioned an independent review of the domestic banking system at the request of the so-called troika (the tripartite committee of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund that is coordinating assistance under EU support mechanisms). The exercise will cover the principal commercial banks as well as the Co-operative Central Bank and a representative sample of affiliated cooperative credit institutions. It will include an asset quality review and a bottom-up stress test aimed at determining the capital needs of each participating institution.

Tomohiro Okawa There are the three main types of insolvency proceedings in Japan. The first is bankruptcy proceedings under the Bankruptcy Act: liquidation-type insolvency proceedings. The second is civil rehabilitation proceedings under the Civil Rehabilitation Act: debtor-in-possession-type insolvency proceedings, which aims to enable a debtor-in-possession to recover by restructuring creditors' claims based on a rehabilitation plan. The third is corporate reorganisation proceedings under the Corporate Reorganisation Act: trustee-type insolvency proceedings, in which a court-appointed trustee manages a stock corporation to recover by restructuring creditors' claims based on a reorganisation plan. As a general matter, the Bankruptcy Act is silent on the issue of subordination and the judicial position on this issue remains unsettled. There are two opposing court precedents on this issue; a ruling of the Tokyo District Court on December 16 1991 in which the court denied the subordination of the claim submitted by the parent company of the insolvent party, reasoning that there are no statutory grounds under the Bankruptcy Act, and a ruling of the Hiroshima District Court on March 6 1998 in which the court permitted the subordination of the claim submitted by the controlling creditor of the insolvent party based on the principle of good faith.

The Philippine Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved on July 27 2012 the feed-in tariffs for solar, wind, biomass and hydropower projects. The approved tariffs are: P9.68 ($0.23) per kWh for solar, P8.53 per kWh for wind, P6.63 per kWh for biomass and P5.90 per kWh for run-of-river hydro. The ERC deferred fixing the FIT for ocean thermal energy conversion pending further study. In arriving at these tariffs, the ERC accepted the methodology used by the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) and took into account, among other things, the cost of construction and operation of the representative plants for each renewable energy technology, the generation output or capacity factors of these plants and the reasonable return on investment to be granted the renewable energy developers. However, the approved feed-in tariffs are lower than what was proposed by the NREB, which were: P17.95 per kWh for solar, P10.37 per kWh for wind, P7.00 per kWh for biomass and P6.15 per kWh for run-of-river hydro.

Iskandar Malaysia is the southern development corridor in Johor, Malaysia. It was officially launched in November 2006 and covers 221,634 hectares of land area within the southern-most part of Johor. The development region encompasses an area of about three-times the size of Singapore and two-times the size of Hong Kong, and has been identified as one of the catalyst developments to spur the growth of the Malaysian economy.

The chair of the securities lending and repo workstream of the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB’s) shadow banking taskforce has laid out the policy options his team is reviewing, giving a real indication of what form the proposals will take

Shearman & Sterling's Financial Institutions Advisory and Financial Regulatory group head, Barnabas Reynolds, outlines why the entire regulatory effort to tackle shadow banking could be one step too far

Too many in the regulatory kitchen

President Obama has been drawn into the latest Cfius review

The region's biggest story last month was the launch of the newly-merged HERBERT SMITH FREEHILLS. The combination of the UK and Australian outfits creates the eighth largest firm by headcount in the world, which now boasts 20 offices and over 2,800 lawyers. The development is a welcome boost for both firms with Herbert Smith having undergone a number of changes in structure and strategy in its home European market in recent years.

Emmanuel Ringeval, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Alban Caillemer du Ferrage, Jones Day Richard Hall, Cravath Swaine & Moore Mohammed Kamal, Berwin Leighton Paisner France produced Europe's biggest stories last month, with FRESHFIELDS BRUCKHAUS DERINGER adding significant clout to its Paris practice through the addition of Weil Gotshal & Manges finance head Emmanuel Ringeval. The new partner focuses on leveraged finance and counts CVC and PAI Partners among his clients. WEIL was not sluggish in responding though. Just a few weeks later it brought in a direct replacement in the form of leveraged finance partner Olivier Jauffret from Linklaters. Elsewhere in Paris, SIMMONS & SIMMONS expanded its projects team with the hire of Simon Ratledge from Linklaters, while JONES DAY took a structured products team from Gide Loyrette Nouel led by Alban Caillemer du Ferrage. Across the channel, CRAVATH SWAINE & MOORE expanded its London team with the relocation of global M&A head Richard Hall to the City. The US firm has a compact London team which deals with US law only. Another US firm, CADWALADER WICKERSHAM & TAFT, has undergone a series of changes in the last few years, though this month saw it take a significant step towards rebuilding its practice with the hire of restructuring and insolvency partner Yushan Ng from Linklaters. Having recently worked on the substantial SEAT Pagine restructuring, Ng will bring plenty of experience to the team along with strong links in the investment funds sector.