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Banji Adenusi Bisola Olusoga As part of efforts aimed at bolstering investor confidence in the Nigerian capital market, the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently released new rules on the operation of a National Investment Protection Fund (NIPF). The SEC released the rules in exercise of its powers under section 13(k) of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2007, and they are geared towards providing a baseline guarantee for compensating investors whose losses are not covered by the Investment Protection Fund (IPF) of securities exchanges and capital trade points in the country. The NIPF provides a cover for investors who suffer losses on investments arising specifically from the bankruptcy, insolvency or negligence of capital market operators (CMO), in addition to defalcations of a CMO or its officers in relation to funds or assets in its custody. The fund is, however, only applicable to transactions regulated by the SEC, while an investor who colludes with a CMO in a wrongful act is disallowed from benefiting from it. In 2013, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) set up an IPF for investors on the NSE, which provisions mirror those of the SEC in some respects.

Nicola de Sylva When the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) was first set up, only firms that provided services to the financial service industries were permitted to be established. That is no longer the case, and QFC licensed entities now serve a wide array of businesses. The permitted activities that can be undertaken in or from the QFC are prescribed by Qatari Law 7 of 2005, as amended (QFC Law) and are known as permitted activities, which include regulated and non-regulated activities.

Vicente D Gerochi Arvin Kristopher Razon The Philippine public-private partnership (PPP) programme, which the administration of President Aquino hopes will fast-track infrastructure development, has attracted a lot of interest from local and foreign investors. Nine projects have been awarded since 2010, including the NAIA Expressway, the LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension, the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Terminal, the Automated Fare Collection System, and the public school projects. Aside from these, 11 projects were rolled out in 2014, including the Laguna Lakeshore Expressway, which is the biggest project to date with a value of $2.73 billion. Local government units have also initiated their own PPP projects. With 50 more projects in the pipeline, the PPP programme could be the key to addressing the country's critical infrastructure backlog. However, concerns have been raised as to the sustainability of the programme. Will succeeding administrations continue to support it? Can best practices developed from, and the lessons of, past biddings be institutionalised?

Bruno Amiel The increased activity of investment funds in the Peruvian market during the last years has led to a rapid reshaping of the Peruvian corporate and M&A market. This increased activity came about both through the creation of new local investment funds and the heighted presence of foreign investment funds. Such investment funds have become major players particularly in private equity transactions, real estate and financing operations, where transactions are no longer limited to the acquisition of controlling stakes in large scale companies. They also now include acquisitions of controlling or minority participations in profitable small and medium companies operating in different sectors by investors pooling their funds through such investment funds. The increased activity was boosted by the Peruvian government enacting regulations to further local and foreign investment, executing investment treaties, simplifying administrative procedures for obtaining concessions, permits, and authorisations. This allowed the investment funds to further increase their investments in small and medium size companies operating in the different sectors. The consequent growth of such companies now requires a review of previously non-existent corporate governance regulations to protect new investors and maximise returns.

Ignacio Buil Aldana José Luis Lucena During 2014, Spain's Insolvency Act suffered an accelerated shift. This was a response to the economy's need to adapt to unprecedented complex insolvency cases that the former wording of the law was unable to tackle. However, this sudden legal evolution has engendered a general feeling of uncertainty caused by the lack of case law and real life examples. In an attempt to remedy this situation, in late 2014 the commercial justices of Madrid drafted a unified document approving common criteria with which to approach the new Spanish Insolvency Act. In essence, light has been shed upon a number of issues that have been holding back investors from distressed investing opportunities in Spain.

Daniel Futej Cyril Hric In November 2014, the Slovak Parliament passed Act 371/2014 on resolving crisis situations on the financial market and on amending certain acts (Act). The Act transposes Directive 2014/59/EU (which establishes a framework for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms) of the European Parliament and of the Council (BRRD) into Slovak law. The objective of implementing the BRRD is to introduce the new framework of prevention and resolution of potential crisis situations on the financial market, which was created at the EU level in response to the financial crisis. The financial crisis demonstrated the extensive scope and range of risks on the financial market, where the complexity of interconnection means that the failure of one financial institution may cause a systemic crisis that has the potential to affect the entire financial system. The priority of the Act is to implement the effective crisis management system created by the BRRD. According to the Act, the Resolution Council (Rada pre riešenie krízových situácií – the Council) was established on January 1 2015 as the national resolution authority in the Slovak Republic. The institutions that fall within the competence of the Council are credit institutions and investment companies with share capital of at least €730,000. The Council is part of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), which comprises: (i) the Single Resolution Board, based in Brussels; (ii) the national resolution authorities of the euro area countries; (iii) the national resolution authorities of those other EU member states that have opted to participate in the SRM.

On January 16 2015, the Federal Department of Finance (FDF) published the revised wording of the Expatriate Ordinance (ExpaV, SR 642.118.3) which will enter into force on January 1 2016. The new ExpaV confirms Switzerland as an attractive place for employees from abroad, due to the higher enforceability of the deductions provided for in the ExpaV. According to the revised ExpaV, the following amendments may be considered the main changes compared to the existing law.

Muharrem Küçük Tolga Çabakli The new regulation on Principles and Procedures Applicable to Factoring Transactions (Regulation) was published by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency on February 4 2015 (Official Gazette 29257). The Regulation includes provisions related to: (i) invoicing; (ii) provision of negotiable instruments; (iii) assignment of future receivables; and (vii) retention of documents. The Regulation aims to prevent any fictive factoring transactions. It is prohibited to enter into any factoring transaction without a genuine invoice or a document which is also treated as the invoice. Banks and factoring companies incorporated in Turkey (Institutions) are required to inspect transactions to verify whether invoices are repeating or recurring, through the Central Invoice Record System. Additionally, if an invoice has been cancelled, clients must notify the Institutions and for the provision of new replacement invoices an undertaking must be provided by clients.

The central government is tackling the national debt crisis through a disciplined approach that focusses on the long-term health of the financial markets

Markus Bolsinger Wendy Pan Judah Frogel Penny Zacharias Mario Nigro April witnessed the continuing defection of talent from Pillsbury to WINSTON & STRAWN. Following the moves of 14 partners in March, Peter Morgan, who specialises in structured finance, private equity, and fund formation, made the move to Winston's New York office.