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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.

Costa Rica is rushing through a reform to its bank secrecy regulations in order to avoid being classified as a tax haven by the OECD. It is grey-listed at the moment, pending government action. The reform on bank secrecy needs to be enacted during the first quarter of 2010. The Ministry of Finance is thus submitting a bill to Congress amending and clarifying local provisions on bank secrecy. This central American country does not have stand-alone legislation on bank secrecy, but rather a dispersed set of banking, tax and commercial provisions dealing with privacy. Costa Rica has endorsed OECD standards of transparency, and has also assumed the obligation to sign at least 12 tax-information exchange agreements in order to improve its international tax cooperation regime.

The economic downturn has brought many companies into at least the early stages of financial difficulties, necessitating discussions with creditors and shareholders. Many have opted to restructure the terms of their existing financing arrangements. Although a number of companies have used schemes of arrangement, contractual refinancings have remained the standard solution.

The Argentine Central Bank has relaxed the requirements for Argentine exporters to obtain an exemption from their obligation to repatriate the foreign currency proceeds of exports based on lack of payment by the importer.

A surprising conclusion on flawed-asset conditional payments has practitioners scrambling for a solution. Here's one

PLUS: First US sukuk boosts industry; Effects on Asian sovereign debt; Timeline - how it all happened

US private equity houses will favour initial public offerings (IPOs) to realise investments this year, partly because listing rules are not as restrictive as those in other jurisdictions