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Recent regulations finalised by the US banking authorities could signal a rocky road ahead for foreign banks

For special committees and advisors undertaking going-private transactions, much can be learnt from recent Delaware court rulings. Here’s the latest best practice

To compete with bigger international rivals, Asia’s exchanges are working together through partnerships and networks. But some disconnects must be fixed before they reach their potential

New rules that took effect on August 13 regulate marketing activities relating to Canadian public offerings

Rodrigo de Campos Vieira In a previous article published in this magazine, the author commented on Brazil's unique opportunity to develop the mechanisms for early stage, smaller and also more established medium-sized companies to access the funds they need to grow their business through the equity capital markets. The previous article discussed a project conducted by investment banks, law firms, civil entities, associations and auditors to be presented to the government with alternatives to unlock the growth of Bovespa Mais, the only access stock market in Brazil.

Elias Neocleous The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Cyprus have jointly announced that the recapitalisation of Bank of Cyprus (BoC) is now complete. Forty seven and a half percent of so-called uninsured deposits (that is, the excess of deposits over €100,000 ($132,600)) as at the time the bank was placed under the resolution regime have been converted into shares, giving a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio estimated at approximately 12%, well above the required minimum. This is the final stage of the bank's resolution process and, according to the announcement, there will be no further measures under the Resolution Law. Early in the resolution process, 37.5% of the excess of customer deposits over €100,000 was earmarked for conversion into shares and a further 22.5% was withheld as a contingency reserve pending an assessment of the bank's financial position and capital needs. Now that the assessment has been completed, a further five percent of the uninsured balance will be returned to depositors. The remainder, after deduction of the amount converted to shares, will be divided into three equal separate time deposits of six, nine and 12 months, respectively, carrying an enhanced rate of interest. On maturity BoC will have the option to renew the time deposits once for the same duration.

Yukiko Konno According to a public announcement by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) dated May 29 2013, the aggregate amount of surcharge payment orders issued by the Commission in fiscal 2012 was approximately ¥25 billion, and was made to 113 business entities (the largest surcharge payment order to a single business entity being approximately ¥ 9.6 billion ($257 million)). It is easy to see that sanctions under the Antimonopoly Act have a great impact on companies with operations in Japan. On May 24, the Japanese Cabinet approved an amendment to the Act. The Bill was submitted to an ordinary session of the Diet in June for approval and is now under discussion. The press release announcing the Cabinet decision can be found on JFTC's website, www.jftc.go.jp/en/ pressreleases/yearly-2013/may/130524.html The most significant amendments in the Bill are the abolition of JFTC administrative appeal procedures for certain JFTC orders, including cease and desist orders and surcharge payment orders, and the introduction of hearing procedures before one of those JFTC orders is issued.

With its communication No 0066209 of August 2 2013, Consob, Italy's securities regulator, has introduced additional information requirements applicable to trusts' shareholdings in listed companies.

Rodrigo Taboada By decision of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental institution, and the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering in South America (GAFISUD), in June 2001 Nicaragua became part of the so-called Grey List on those institutions' prevention system for combating money laundering and terrorist financing. This was due to 'strategic deficiencies'. One of the five reasons Nicaragua presented strategic deficiencies was the absence of a financial intelligence unit. The country has now taken steps to stay off the Grey List, through the passage of a law that creates the Financial Intelligence Unit. This was published in the Official Journal (La Gaceta) on June 22 2012 and became effective in September 2012.

In an effort to increase the government's share in the revenues derived from the use and development of the country's mineral resources, the President of the Republic of the Philippines issued Executive Order No 79 on July 6 2012. Section 4 of the Order imposes a moratorium on the execution of new mineral agreements (such as mineral production sharing agreements) 'until legislation rationalising existing revenue sharing schemes and mechanisms shall have taken effect.' The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will not accept nor approve applications for mineral agreements until the moratorium is lifted by the passage of a statute rationalising the current fiscal regime of mineral agreements. Section 4, however, excludes the issuance of exploration permits, financial or technical assistance agreements, mineral processing permits, and quarry permits from the coverage of the moratorium.