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Contributors including Korea Corporate Governance Service, NYSE and Gen2 Partners provide practical advice for managing transactions in the country

Brazil’s new law adapts the instrument to local financing needs, but reveals the challenges of making covered bonds work in emerging markets

Imminent reforms will reveal the identity of those behind companies registered in the UK. The new disclosure obligations promise to create among the highest levels of transparency in the world

Besnik Duraj For more than two decades, the Albanian electricity power sector has been facing critical financial and operational problems, as a result of a number of issues and ensuing chain reactions. The most characteristic example is end consumers who do not pay the power distributors, who in turn do not pay the transmission operators, and so forth up to the power producing companies. With the entire electricity power system in a debt downward spiral, a major objective of the Albanian Government for 2015 is the reformation of the power sector by drafting a new bill. The new draft bill was approved during the Council of Ministers meeting on January 14 2015 and sent to the Parliament for debate and approval. Apart from financial goals, the said bill aims at fulfilling Albania's obligations in the context of the Energy Community Treaty. It seeks to harmonise the local power sector legislation with EU directives and rules, with a particular focus on the Third Energy Package for gas and electricity markets.

Elias Neocleous Since the beginning of 2014, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has been developing a risk-based supervision framework. By focusing on the entities and activities that are of greatest importance in terms of their potential impact, it aims to increase the effectiveness of its regulatory activities. Consequently, CySEC's assessment of the risk that each individual entity it regulates poses will determine the intensity of supervision. A risk assessment will be performed for all entities at least every year and the outcome will be used to define each entity's monitoring programme for the forthcoming regulatory period. The assessment will be based on the impact, or potential harm that could be caused by a particular set of circumstances, weighted by the estimated probability of those circumstances actually occurring. Risk measures may be quantitative or qualitative. Impact is assessed on the basis of numerical and financial data extracted from the entity's regulatory returns. Probability is assessed on a range of criteria including the entity's governance arrangements and its susceptibility to being used for financial crime.

Oscar Samour Last year, the Salvadoran Congress passed the Investment Funds Law (IFL), which established the possibility of channelling and developing collective investment within the local financial system. As defined in the IFL, an investment fund is a special-purpose vehicle that gathers contributions – generally in cash – from multiple investors to be invested in different types of assets, such as securities, real estate, and financial instruments. Under the IFL, investment funds are administered by a special-purpose stock company (sociedad anónima) called a management company. The management company is created with the sole purpose of investing the contributions from its stockholders – investors – in accordance with its bylaws. The patrimony of the fund is independent from the patrimony of the management company by law, and the contributions from the investors are therefore protected in case of bankruptcy of the management company. Additionally, management companies must design and establish mechanisms for asset and share valuations, and have the proper accounting and operation records as well as a merchandising platform for promoting investment.

Sotaro Mori On May 30 2014, an act for the partial amendment to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act or FIEA (Amendment Act) was promulgated. The objective of the Amendment Act is to establish 'measures to enhance the overall attractiveness of Japan's financial and capital markets'. Such measures include, in particular, the promotion of equity crowdfunding in Japan by relaxing the regulation of equity crowdfunding intermediaries. The Amendment Act will become effective by May 30 2015, the exact date to be determined by cabinet order. Equity crowdfunding generally refers to schemes by which start-up companies and investors are connected through the internet so that funds may be collected from a large pool of investors, each generally contributing a small amount. The Amendment Act enables those crowdfunding intermediaries that conduct public offerings or private placements solely through the internet (or other designated electronic means) within the prescribed amounts (to be determined by cabinet order, although the Amendment Act is planned to be applicable for total offerings of less than ¥100 million for which the amount of investment per investor is ¥500,000 or less) to register. They may register as either a Type I crowdfunding operator, where equity interests are offered, or, where fund interests are offered, as a Type II crowdfunding operator. The Amendment Act exempts registered Type I and Type II crowdfunding operators from certain restrictions applicable to other financial business operators, including: (i) restrictions on conducting other business activities; (ii) regulations on posting signs at business offices; and (iii) capital adequacy requirements.

Banji Adenusi Tolu Adetomiwa On January 22 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a directive to Nigerian banks, discount houses and other financial institutions to comply with the requirements of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca), a legislation introduced as part of the US Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act 2010 to check offshore tax evasion by US subjects (account holders). Fatca ensures that the assets and incomes of US account holders held with non-US financial institutions, known as foreign financial institutions (FFIs), are disclosed to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This is in view of the fact that US tax subjects are taxed on their worldwide income. Failure to comply with the reporting obligation renders the US account holder or FFI to a 30% withholding on all US-sourced profits or payments. Already the withholding penalty has become applicable to fixed or determinable annual or periodical (FDAP) payments made on or after July 1 2014, while it took effect on FDAP gross proceeds and pass-through payments on January 1 2015.

John H Choi and Changhun Lee of Shin & Kim look at amended guidelines on the unreasonable exercise of IP rights

Iñigo de Luisa After several years of economic turmoil, Spain's GDP forecasts anticipate a two to three percent increase for the next two years. This is probably the best performance of all EU members. Consumption rates are improving and foreign investors' interest is high. However, it is true that the unemployment rate remains too high (above 20%) and this year of elections (regional, municipal and Spanish government) could have an unexpected impact on investors' attitudes. It is clear that the appetite of international investors, distressed and special situations funds and debt trade desks will continue in 2015. They have previously revolved around the usual well-known corporate names, but this should change and new names will come into action.