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The European Commission plans to shift prospectus approval into the hands of Esma – to the dismay of national competent authorities. IFLR asks whether it’s the right decision

It hasn't been a great year for the Americas. It's a year that around 48% of voting US citizens would like to see stricken from the record, where corruption scandals continue to engulf Brazil and Venezuela has fallen further into despair. Mexico continues to wait tensely to see what will happen to Nafta and whether a somewhat controversial 3,200km wall will ever materialise along its northernmost border. But even with all the doom and gloom across the region, it is Puerto Rico that has arguably been hit the hardest, allegorically, physically and perhaps most damaging, financially.

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.

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

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).

Brazilian closed-end funds offer an advantageous investment platform since their earnings are only taxable upon distribution to investors. Conversely, income earned by Brazilian open-end funds is taxed every six months, the so-called come-cotas.

On October 25 2017, the Law of Secured Transactions (Law 936) came into force with the purpose of stimulating access to credit for individual traders, small and medium enterprises, and other institutions that due to the nature of their assets were not subject to financing at competitive interest rates.

On May 26 2017, an amendment to the Civil Code was enacted and will be enforced within three years from the promulgation date of June 2 2017. The aim of this Amendment is to comprehensively reform the law in respect of obligations in the Japanese Civil Code. Although many of the provisions were revised based on existing case law and commonly accepted theories in Japan, this Amendment will have a significant effect on Japanese legal practice because: (i) it covers a broad range of legal issues, which include statutory interest rates, statutes of limitations, default, cancellation of contracts, damages, assignments of claims, set-offs and guarantee obligations; and, (ii) it introduces some new rules. This article covers some of the new rules introduced by the Amendment.

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.

A bank may need to acquire treasury stocks for a variety of reasons, such as to adjust firm leverage levels or to deliver financial compensation to shareholders. One concern, though, is the situation where the bank wishes to repurchase its shares from the market while its foreign shareholding ratio has already reached the threshold under the law.