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As Thai police issue summonses to three KPMG partners responsible for liquidating Lehman Brothers, attention has turned to Lehman’s joint venture agreement with the complainant

The latest asset sale by Canadian telecoms company Nortel has proved that strong consortium bids are vital to the success of distressed M&A deals

Overpriced sovereign debt could be the next burst bubble, according to Hong Kong’s top regulator, Martin Wheatley

A court decision in Charter Communications’ bankruptcy proceeding has set an important precedent as to what constitutes a group under section 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act

In an attempt to mitigate the financial consequences of the recession, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the Ukrainian Parliament have recently supplemented their regulation of external borrowings and and the temporary administration of banks. This note reviews some of these measures.

The Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act (the FISCM) of Korea, which became effective on April 1 2009, emphasises following four regulatory areas: (i) the concept of financial investment products defined on the basis of a negative system (where related actions are allowed unless expressly prohibited), (ii) regulation of financial investment businesses according to function, (iii) expansion of the scope of financial investment businesses, and (iv) modernisation of the investor protection system.

The new Bill on Strategic Companies, which was approved on November 5 2009 by the Slovak Parliament, sparked vigorous political discussions. The opposition, together with representatives of employers' associations and business associations, warns that the bill may have a harmful effect on the business environment and discourage investment.

The Payment Services Directive has been transposed in Romania, through Government Emergency Ordinance 113/2009 on payment services. The Ordinance entered into force on November 1 2009, together with Regulation 21/2009 on payment institutions, issued by the National Bank of Romania (NBR), which aims at governing the establishment of the payment institutions (PI), their activities and prudential supervision.

In the absence of a general anti-tax avoidance rule, numerous cross-border transactions in Indonesia are structured to minimise Indonesian tax. There are various specific anti-tax avoidance rules such as CFC and thin capitalisation, but the tax authorities are apparently worried that treaty abusive practices still occur. Back in 2005, the Indonesian tax authority commenced its efforts to combat those practices by issuing circular letters on beneficial ownership and a unilateral increase of withholding tax on interests paid to Dutch tax residents from 0% to 10%. As part of the reform process, the 2008 income tax law also explicitly defines a beneficial owner. A large number of those measures are considered less than successful, as there were many international tax disputes that were verified in court and decided in favour of the taxpayer.

Effective September 1 2009, the Czech Republic's Act on Protection of Economic Competition has been amended. The amendment introduces the possibility of a simplified merger clearance procedure.