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The new Slovenian Banking Act (ZBan-1) became effective on January 1 2007. It introduces stricter and more complex mechanisms for capital adequacy, in line with the Basel II standards (EC Directive 2006/48/EC on the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions and EC Directive 2006/49/EC on the capital adequacy of investment firms and credit institutions).

Foreign lawyers will soon be prohibited from entering into any cooperative business arrangements with their Korean counterparts (in the form of joint venture, alliance or employment), according to a draft bill under review by the Korean Ministry of Justice.

Banks' disclaimers on debt deals will be ineffective if their behaviour doesn't match up

Amendments to the US Bankruptcy Code have created a boom in derivative-driven structures, such as the SIV-Lite

When the new Companies Act 2006 came into force last year, several issues related to upstream loans and security (including financial assistance) that had been the subject of debate were clarified.

On January 1 2007, Dutch legislation relating to the supervision of financial institutions and markets was completely overhauled. In the Netherlands, each type of financial activity has traditionally been regulated by a sector-based act, for example, the Act on the Supervision of the Credit System 1992, the Act on the Supervision of the Insurance Industry 1993, the Act on the Supervision of the Securities Trade 1995 and the Act on the Supervision of Collective Investment Schemes. All these acts have now been replaced by one single act that applies to all financial institutions on a cross-sector basis: the Act on Financial Supervision (Wet op het financieel toezicht, or the WFT). Rules have also been laid down in extensive secondary legislation, including 11 decrees and a number of regulations by the Minister of Finance, the Dutch central bank and the Authority for the Financial Markets.

The Anti-usury Act, which came into force on February 20 2006 aims to create an additional protection for borrowers against exorbitant banking charges and usurious interest rates and to reduce and limit activity of various financial institutions offering high interest loans with more than 100% interest rate per annum. The new provisions concern loans worth up to €20,000.

A delegation from Fitch, the international ratings organization, visited Cyprus in October 2006 in order to review the status of the Cyprus economy. In a press release issued on January 11 2007, Fitch affirmed the positive outlook of the Cyprus economy. Cyprus's foreign currency issuer default rating (IDR) has been affirmed at A+ with a positive outlook and the short-term foreign currency rating at F1.

Unless Mofcom and the CSRC get their act together, red chip listings might run dry

Under the Serbian Law on the Securities Market and other Financial Instruments, banks that provide custody services are supervised by the Securities Commission, which issues licences to perform these services. Four banks in Serbia are licensed to provide custody services, some of which act as sub-custodians for global custody banks.