Search results for

By Louise Le Yi Gong Chambers & Company

Historically, restructurings performed before Romanian courts have been inefficient due to lengthy and complicated court procedures. Only 1.5% of restructurings performed through the court are completed successfully. The rest end in bankruptcy.

Sukuk in general market parlance refers to negotiable financial instruments that do not have elements that are prohibited in Islam. Formal definitions can be found in international standards such as in the shariah standard of the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Instititutions (Aaoifi) as well as in local regulatory guidelines such as in the case of Malaysia issued by the Securities Commission of Malaysia. In the former, investment sukuk are described as certificates of equal value representing undivided shares in ownership of tangible assets, usufruct and services or (in the ownership of) the assets of particular projects or special investment activity whilst in the latter sukuk are simply defined as a document or certificate which represents the value of an asset.

Mauricio Salas, BLP Abogados The securities regulator of Costa Rica, the Superintendencia General de Valores (Sugval) is drafting new rules for venture capital funds, in an effort to bolster financing of entrepreneurial transactions. Several funds operate in Costa Rica on a private basis. Public offering of funds has not been authorised by the regulator so far, despite being expressly authorised by statute in Costa Rica's Ley Reguladora del Mercado de Valores.

On December 15 2009, the Brazilian government enacted Provisional Measure 472. Among other things, it created two new financial instruments for the long term funding of financial institutions, the Financial Bill (Letra Financeira) and the Structured Transactions Certificate (Certificado de Operações Estruturadas).

New legislative provisions will come into effect shortly in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) relating to financial services, insurance business and financing and money services. They will provide an enhanced platform in these areas of the financial services industry, again demonstrating the commitment of the BVI to ensuring its legislation provides transparent regulation that is appropriate for the BVI as an OECD white-listed jurisdiction.

A considerable number of loans granted in Albania have been secured with pledges on movable properties or with mortgages over immovable properties.

Grandfathering, the composition of tier one capital and loss absorption are the most worrying aspects of the Basel Committee’s latest proposals, says Linklaters’ head of equity and debt markets group, Carson Welsh.

China is moving towards close-out netting. According to counsel, regulators want to make it enforceable but there are still difficulties ahead. Netting might only apply to financial institutions.

The Austrian central bank tells an IFLR Forum why central and eastern Europe coped better than most with its financial crisis