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Uncertainty around the UK’s future relationship with the EU is believed to have affected M&A activity. Clarity is needed to ensure levels pick up again

The commodities trader has financed its inventory using capital markets, in response to tighter capital requirements under Basel III

The CBOE exchange listing has again raised the discussion that cryptocurrencies should be regulated

Dentons' international expansion shows no signs of stopping with the firm launching a new office in Melbourne. The new location will be headed up by Nick Stretch who joins the firm with a team of three other partners.

Will 2018 bring yet more uncertainty, or will the global economy come back down to earth?

There have been many large non-performing loan (NPL) sales in Spain, particularly in the past five years. The trigger was undoubtedly the setting up of the Spanish bad bank (Sareb) and the transfer of €51 billion ($61 billion) of impaired assets (loans with mortgage collateral and real estate properties). Since 2012, Sareb has been very active selling NPL portfolios to institutional investors through competitive sale processes and there is still a nine-year period left to sell them all (with more than €39 billion still remaining). More recently, Sareb has launched an online platform so investors can also bid for the NPLs on an individual basis.Borrowers are also becoming increasingly interested in acquiring debt at a discount through funds from alternative providers.

As of January 1 2017, the amendment to the Slovak Commercial Code introduced a new corporate form – the simple joint-stock company (JSA). It is a simpler form of the joint-stock company with some specific features, including: reduced share capital of a minimum of just €1 ($1.20); the possibility of a one-person board of directors; the ability to issue various classes of shares; and, the ability to agree on an exit from the company. Two new statutory concepts were also introduced: the shareholders' agreement and option rights in the sale of shares.

The corporate tax systems of most European countries contain rules that provide some form of fiscal relief on income from participations. Under these rules, income, gains or losses from participations are often fully or partly disregarded. Switzerland also recognises participation relief in corporate taxation, yet its rules stand in sharp contrast to the ones commonly encountered, as they treat participations a priori as ordinary taxable assets. This provides both opportunities and pitfalls which taxpayers should be aware of.

As early as March 2014 the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) alerted potential investors to the risks associated with investment in virtual currencies or contracts for difference (CFD) linked to them. Its recently-issued circular C244 dated October 13 2017 sets out the conditions Cyprus investment firms must satisfy in the event they provide investment services in respect of such products to safeguard investors' interests.

Advisory services for securities have been a topic of discussion and concern for local regulators and supervisors, as well as for local and foreign market participants, because of the breadth of the existing applicable law and the various legal restrictions involved. Nowadays, advisory services for securities fall under one of the following descriptions: (i) a securities' intermediation activity, (ii) a duty requested from local securities' intermediaries; or, (iii) an activity not regulated by local regulations (which only applies for some activities undertaken within M&A processes and similar investment banking transactions).