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Chika Enemuo Nigeria has finally joined other nations with vast sovereign wealth fund (SWF) networks. It has established its own fund to operate in line with international best practices. The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority Act, 2011 (NSIA Act 2011) which establishes the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has the principal aim of building a savings base for Nigerian citizens, enhancing the development of Nigerian infrastructure and providing stabilisation support in times of economic stress, among others.

Christina Papanikolopoulou On July 1 2011 the Greek Parliament passed Law 3986/2011 on Emergency Measures for the Implementation of the Medium-term Fiscal Strategy Framework for the years 2012-2015 (Medium-term Plan). One of the measures introduced by the Law was the establishment of a fund that will undertake the development and exploitation of private law assets owned by the Hellenic Republic and/or state-owned corporations. This fund was set up in the context of the Greek government's efforts to step up privatisations, which it has committed to complete under the emergency lending plan established by the ECB, the Eurozone and the IMF.

Regulators are in dialogue with the US’s loan trading trade body on the potential exemption of open market CLOs from risk retention rules

Lynette Yeow A typical question from foreign clients wishing to raise funds from certain Malaysian institutions is whether there exists a safe harbour for private offerings of interests in offshore entities to sophisticated investors, which are exempted from Malaysian regulatory approvals.

Ingrid de Wilde Angelique Thiele In March 2011 a bill was published for consultation to extend the powers of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and the Dutch Minister of Finance to intervene in credit institutions, special purpose reinsurance vehicles and insurers that are experiencing "serious irreversible problems". The bill, referred to as the Intervention Act, is intended to fill the gap between already existing statutory powers with a view to preventing financial institutions from getting into financial difficulties and, at the other end of the scale, existing rules with respect to emergency regimes and bankruptcy of financial institutions.

Leonard Birmingham In relation to private placements, joint ventures or at times public listings, BVI companies are sometimes structured so as to be able to issue what are known as blank-cheque preferred shares. Where a company seeks to attract certain persons as shareholders, those investors will sometimes only invest if the terms of that investment are suitably attractive, meaning a need for flexibility. The company needs to have the ability to give those investors comfort that they will get a preferential position in the equity ranking. Until recently, a BVI company could easily issue such shares pursuant to statutory authority. The situation is no longer so clear.

The new general counsel of UBS's investment bank, Chul Chung, has certainly hit the ground running.

Chun-yih Cheng The Guidelines Governing Disclosure of Information by Franchisors were first promulgated by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission in 1999. The last amendments were made in 2009. The franchising business has developed rapidly, expanding to various industries; however, disputes between franchisors and franchisees have erupted. The Fair Trade Commission recently has revamped and renamed the guidelines as the Guidelines Governing the Business Operation of Franchisors.

It takes time to learn how the financial services industry functions, time to learn how to navigate one's own institution and time to gain enough trust with internal clients that they can contextualise and better accept a 'no'.

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