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Elias Neocleous The Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law, Law 144(I) of 2007, requires Cyprus Investment Firms (CIFs) that hold clients' funds to take every possible measure to protect their clients' interests. The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued detailed guidance to CIFs regarding these obligations in 2012 in its Directive DI144-2007-01, which requires CIFs to have adequate arrangements in place to minimise the risk of loss or diminution of clients' assets as a result of misuse, fraud, poor administration, inadequate record keeping or negligence. CySEC has recently issued a reminder to CIFs that maintain a merchant account for the clearing or settlement of payment transactions that any such merchant account must be completely segregated and may not be used by anyone other than the CIF. Under no circumstances may CIFs' merchant accounts be used by connected persons or third parties, as this does not provide the required degree of segregation and protection of client funds.

Diego Alejos Rivera The market for securities and commodities in Guatemala operates within the legal framework provided by the Securities and Commodities Market Act. The regulation contained in this Act established the playing field in which securities and commodities are negotiated as well as setting out the parameters through which key players in the market behave. Although the Securities and Commodities Market Act is 18 years old and was amended once in 2008, the market remains undeveloped in Guatemala, as the negotiation of securities through public or private placements is limited. To counteract this, the Monetary Board is seeking to pass a new law, which will regulate the market and its players. The Monetary Board through this bill seeks to facilitate the integration and eventual development of the market in Guatemala by substantially modernising the legislation.

Rashid Bahar The Federal Council opened on November 28 2014 a consultation on a major modernisation of Swiss corporate law. The draft bill aims, on the one hand, to implement on a statutory level the requirements of article 95 (3) of the federal constitution resulting from the so-called fat-cat initiative that was adopted. On the other, it aims to re-initiate a series of reforms that were launched in 2007, but that were put on hold shortly after to focus on the fat-cat initiative. As the consultation period closes, we consider the key proposals of the draft bill. Overall, the draft bill on the modernisation of Swiss corporate law is a vast one, covering a diverse range of issues; some pundits have called it a mammoth bill.

Jay Lee of Simmons & Simmons explains why new Safe rules permitting guarantees for offshore offerings may change how the popular support mechanism is used

Smyth & Co's Jonathan Cary and Robert Rhoda explain why counterparties are resorting to alternative venues to resolve disputes under the ISDA Master Agreement

Corporates looking to set up headquarters in the continent need a jurisdiction of substance. Here are their best options

Karole Cuddihy John Breslin In Independent Trustee Company v Registrar of Companies 2015, the plaintiff (ITC) challenged the Irish Registrar of Companies (or Companies Registration Office: the CRO). The plaintiff claimed that the CRO gave the status of 'receivership' on the register of companies to a company which had a receiver appointed over some and not all of its assets. A lender appointed receivers over certain assets, which ITC held on trust for a sub-fund. The lender placed the usual advertisement in a newspaper and notified the CRO of the appointment.

Oene Marseille Emir Nurmansyah As of March 1 2015, anyone flying out of Indonesian airports will no longer need to shell out for the passenger service charge (more popularly known as airport tax). The charge will have already been included in the price of the airfare. The Indonesian director general of air transportation issued Regulation 12 of January 23 2015 addressing this matter. Regulation 12 was amended a month later by Regulation 59 (February 24 2015), but the core change was retained. Article 3, which states that passenger service charge will be assessed and added to the price of the airline tickets sold by the airline, was kept unchanged.

Tomohiro Okumura Amendments to the Companies Act (Amendments) will come into force on May 1 2015, in which a new form of cash out will be included. Under the Amendments, the special controlling shareholder (a shareholder who holds nine-tenths or more of the voting power of all shareholders of the company) may demand that the other shareholders sell their shares of the company to the special controlling shareholder (a so-called demand for sale). By using a demand for sale, a shareholder who holds the majority vote may force minority shareholders out of the company. Conventionally, the method that is used for such a purpose is for the company to issue and acquire class shares by a resolution of the shareholders meeting. However, since this method necessitates the holding of a shareholders meeting, it is burdensome for a company.

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão Following Notice no 009/2008-AMCM the Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM) under its supervision power, issued new guidelines to be complied with by insurance institutions and the insurance intermediaries. These guidelines take into account the subsequent developments on anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) matters, including the revisions introduced by the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) in relation to international AML/CFT standards in February 2012. These guidelines are annexed to Notice no 015/2014-AMCM that came into force on January 2 2015, revoking Notice no 009/2008-AMCM.