Search results for

Antonio Felix de Araujo Cintra The Brazilian credit securitisation industry has developed at an amazing rate in recent years. Since the enactment of Instruction CVM No. 356, which set out the rules for the organisation and operation of securitisation funds in Brazil (the so-called FIDCs), credit securitisation transformed itself from being an exotic financial product into one of the first alternatives sought by companies looking for possible general capital funding. At a time when interest rates were still very high in Brazil, the creation of FIDCs enabled companies to sell their trade receivables to raise working capital at more accessible rates. The same mechanism was quickly adopted by smaller banks, which sold their car and consumer loan portfolios to FIDCs to be able to continue to make new loans without breaching their capital requirement rules established by the Central Bank. In addition, FIDCs were also created to provide financing for small and medium-sized suppliers of large corporations and to purchase non-performing loans, precatórios (payment obligations of the Brazilian public sector) and other types of credits, creating a very useful secondary market for all kinds of credits.

Carlos Fradique Me´ndez Lyana de Luca The Colombian Financial Superintendence (SFC) recently issued Regulation 053 of 2011 which sets forth new requirements to establish a representative office in Colombia or enter into a correspondent agreement with a local brokerage firm or investment bank, with the purpose of undertaking marketing activities of financial products in Colombia. This is particularly relevant, as Colombian institutional investors are aggressively looking at investment opportunities abroad, largely as a result of the Colombian economy continuing to grow at very attractive rates. Pursuant to Regulation 053, foreign financial institutions seeking to promote their financial products and/or services in Colombia will be allowed to market and promote exclusively the products and/or services authorised by the SFC. Any kind of promotion or marketing of products and/or services beyond those that were initially authorised must have the proper authorisation of the SFC. The SFC is itself authorised to impose sanctions to representative offices and local correspondents who undertake marketing activities with respect to non-authorised products and/or services.

Take one global rate-fixing probe. Add in an escalating money laundering scandal, an embarrassing swap mis-selling settlement, and three costly US trading glitches. Sprinkle with an investing public already antagonised by today's 'bankster' culture and garnish with outraged politicians at your discretion.

After a four-year lull, securitisation is easing its way back into China. Despite the market's unenthusiastic response to the People's Bank Of China's (PBOC) plan, announced in March, to allow five participating banks to securitise credit assets, developments elsewhere give a sense of China's securitisation goals.

When Cyprus became independent in 1960 it retained the colonial-era Limitation of Actions Law, which prescribed the time limits within which claims must be brought before a court. The Limitations Law was suspended in 1964 following inter-communal disturbances. An attempt to reinstate it was made in 2002 with the enactment of Law 110(I) of 2002, which provided that the Limitations Law would re-enter into force with effect from June 1 2005. However, the entry into force of the 2002 Law was postponed by a succession of laws, each temporarily extending the suspension. The last of these, passed in December 2011, extended the suspension until June 30 2012.

During the past 10 years, Honduras has made great progress in the protection of financial users' rights. One of the most significant advances was the enactment on February 3 2010 of the Rules for Strengthening the Financial Transparency, Culture and Customer Care for Financial Users in Supervised Financial Institutions (Resolution 223/26-01-2010) (the Transparency Rules) which were later amended by the Resolution GE 1631/12-09-2011 and supplemented by Resolution GE 1632/12-09-2011 (the Supplementary Rules) effective as of October 8 2011.

Janice Roepnarain Since the beginning of 2012 there have been several court cases involving the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), one of the Dutch financial markets supervisors, and offerors of so-called flash loans. These are short-term loans to consumers for small amounts of money, whereby the money is transferred to the consumers on the same day that the request for the loan is made, or within just a few days. The reason behind the greater focus of the AFM on offerors of flash loans is that the Act on Financial Supervision (AFS) was amended due to the implementation of the Consumer Credit Directive (2008/48/EC) in May 2011. The most important amendment is that before the implementation of the Consumer Credit Directive, all credit which was repayable within three months fell outside the scope of the AFS. After the implementation of the Directive, only credit which has to be repaid by a consumer within three months and whereby the costs payable by the consumer are insignificant fall outside the scope of the AFS. Due to this amendment, many offerors of credit to consumers who previously were not regulated are now obliged to obtain a licence from the AFM. Recent case law shows that offerors of flash loans and the AFM often disagree on whether the activities concerned qualify as the offering of credit, or which costs should be considered to be part of the costs of the credit. In the Consumer Credit Directive 'total cost of the credit to the consumer' means, in short, all costs and fees which the consumer is required to pay in connection with the credit agreement, except for notarial costs. Furthermore, costs in respect of ancillary services relating to the credit agreement are also included if, in addition, the conclusion of a service contract is compulsory in order to obtain the credit or to obtain it on the terms and conditions marketed.

On top of being bad policy, transaction tax has little impact on volatility. Knight Capital's rogue algorithm resulted in a $440 million trading loss for the market-maker that made wild trades for 45-minutes before pulling the plug on its new system. Perhaps more concerning to market participates is the trading blunder's potential to rally support for a policy solution that is anything but.

Diversification of Russia’s banking sector following its accession to the WTO will be constrained by raising global capital requirements. But the sector should be bolstered by loan standardisation expected this year

German and French insolvency reforms are trying to deter forum shopping and encourage pre-bankruptcy proceedings. But are they working?