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Mexico's President Felipe Calderon proposed a set of major political reforms in a legislative package that was delivered to the Mexican Congress on December 15 2009. The proposed changes – perhaps the most important political reform initiative in decades – include run-off elections for future presidential contests and consecutive re-election for several officials and federal legislators.

The Mexican government has taken a number of steps to modernise the procurement by public entities. In past briefs, we informed of the amendments to the Law for Government Acquisitions, Leases and Services (Ley de Adquisiciones, Arrendamientos y Servicios del Sector Publico or the Acquisitions Law) and the Public Works and Related Services Law (Ley de Obras Públicas y Servicios Relacionados con las Mismas, the Public Works Law), which grant enhanced flexibility to procurement by the Mexican government. In addition to these amendments, the Regulations to the Petroleos Mexicanos Law (Reglamento de la Ley de Petroleos Mexicanos, the regulations) were enacted to contribute to the modernisation effort. This is because it relates specifically to the recent amendments to the legal regime governing the hydrocarbons sector in Mexico.

Recently, the Indonesian Capital Market and Financial Institution Supervisory Board (Bapepam-LK) revised its regulations on certain corporate actions by public companies.

Chilean banks come through the financial crisis relatively unscathed. Recent transactions have been mainly focused on debt restructuring, so as to avoid major defaults and systemic risk.

Greater restrictions on regulatory capital mean banks are turning to equity derivatives to make investments specific for anchor investors

Hong Kong’s stock exchange is divided on whether disclosure of price sensitive information should be backed by criminal sanctions

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) of Korea has been getting increasingly strict with its review of securities registration statements. Recently, it published its guidelines for investors after analysing the companies that raised capital with public disclosures announcing that they are entering into new business areas.

It has been nearly a century since the establishment of the Japanese Civil Code, but recently interest in comprehensive amendments to it has steadily increased. Thus, in the September 2009 issue we reported on the publication on March 31 2009 of The Policy Underlying a Proposed Amendment of the Claims Law (the Report) prepared by the Study Committee on the Amendment to the Civil Claims Law. In this article, we discuss three topics addressed in the Report which have received considerable attention: (i) default by a party to a contract (obligor), (ii) cancellation of a contract, and (iii) damage awards for default claims.

On August 3 2009 the Minister of Economy and Finance, Associazione Bancaria Italiana (ABI) and the major Italian associations of enterprises published a common notice to the Italian banking system fixing the general terms for a principal payment holiday (PPH) in favour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) leaving open to the ABI's members the decision of allowing their clients to participate to the principal payment holiday.

Cyprus has recently amended its Income Tax Law and its Special Contribution for Defence Law with a view to increasing the attractiveness of the taxation regime for mutual funds and collective investment schemes, and simplifying the taxation of interest generally.