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Portability is proving just as difficult to holdback

Regulatory approvals and politics are just as hard to separate

Mary Anne Mason,

How should banks’ CCP default fund exposures be calculated?

Virginia Tam, K&L Gates LINKLATERS has become the latest international outfit to open in South Korea, gaining approval from the Ministry of Finance. Capital markets partner Hyung Ahn will head up the new operation alongside banking and projects partner Stephen le Vesconte and M&A counsel Kyungseok Kim. In other firm news EVERSHEDS has hired energy partner Ingrid Zhu-Clark from Morgan Lewis & Bockius to head up its newly opened Beijing office. The other resident partner will be corporate focused Jay Ze. The launch is part of the firm's plans to enhance its global energy practice. Elsewhere in Beijing, AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD hired corporate partner Chen Li away from fellow US firm Milbank. Among the domestic firms HAN KUN LAW OFFICES looked to Concord & Partners for its latest hire, welcoming on-board corporate partner Jun He. In Shanghai, HAYNES AND BOONE welcomed on-board corporate partner Liza Mark from Dorsey & Whitney.

Matthieu Grollemund, Dechert Bernhard Gemmel, Bird & Bird One of Europe's biggest stories of the month was the hire by Romanian firm TUCA ZBARCEA & ASOCIATII of Musat & Asociatii co-managing partner Catalin Baiculescu. The move is surprising given Baiculescu spent 15 years at his former firm, and considering high-level partner hires in Romania are rare. In Italy the big news was WHITE & CASE'S further expansion of its debt capital markets offering with the hires of partner Paola Leocani, counsel Elena Radicella Chiaramonte, and their team from Allen & Overy. Since reopening its office in 2011, the firm has been making headway in the capital markets area having already picked up notable mandates including from the Italian state. The US firm was also active in Brussels, hiring Linklaters counsel Matthieu Duplat.

The Winklevoss twins' attempt to transition from Facebook litigants to Bitcoin entrepreneurs this month was largely derided. While it's hard to imagine US regulators will ever approve the brothers' proposed Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust initial public offering, the fact such a product has even been suggested points to a development much harder to ignore: Bitcoin's assimilation into the mainstream.

Which country's reputation has taken the biggest hit in business circles over recent years? Surely, the US is second to none. The once-undisputed financial superpower has suffered an unrivalled fall from grace. This past month, however, has provided some stark reminders that the US's legacy of global leadership and influence is difficult to erase.

What exactly is the EC’s LTIF programme aiming for?

Ahlibank has become the first Omani bank to roll out a Shariah-compliant fund, creating the only Omani fund focussed on the Middle East and North Africa. Here's how the bank launched the bellwether deal in the absence of a regulatory framework.