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Volumes in Europe are up this year. But trading issues are damaging liquidity, and hampering the market’s full revival

The country's financial sector must address its large volume of non-performing loans. Gianni Origoni Grippo's Giuseppe Schiavello analyses a recent reform that could make it easier for banks to offload these portfolios

Market conditions are primed for Russian corporates to buy back their eurobonds. Debevoise & Plimpton's James Scoville, Robert Manson and Dmitry Karamyslov describe the particularities of the original issuance structures that must be taken into account

Other capital funds as one of the components of a company´s equity in Slovak entities (Funds) are used primarily when there is a need to inject cash into a company in a very short time. A company's equity comprises: (i) share capital; (ii) capital funds (including the Funds); (iii) funds created from net profit; (iv) profit or loss from previous years; and, (v) after-tax profit or loss for the accounting period. The issue of contributions to Funds has long been a subject of intense legal discussion in Slovakia. The main discussion is focused on the issue of whether the Funds may represent cost free contributions and may be freely returned to the shareholder who provided them.

Isil Ökten Aslihan Özbey The Capital Markets Board of Turkey (CMB) published the Communiqué Serial: III 59.1 on Covered Bonds (new Communiqué) in the Official Gazette on January 21 2014. The New Communiqué is part of regulatory improvements to Turkey's bonds and securitisation market. It introduces a consolidated legal framework regulating asset-covered bonds and mortgage-covered bonds. In order to clarify certain issues under the new Communiqué and to make the issuance of covered bonds more effective in Turkey, the CMB recently published an amendment to the new Communiqué (amended Communiqué). According to the new Communiqué, if any cash collection is made from the assets in the pool, the issuer must either: (i) record the proceeds to the cover registry; (ii) remove the cash from the cover registry for the payments of the covered bonds; or (iii) replace the cash with the new security assets. One of the major amendments to the new Communiqué introduced by the amended Communiqué is that now the issuer is free to use the cash proceeds provided that it complies with the statutory tests and all other liabilities.

Soonghee Lee Sung Woon Kang An amendment to the Act on Real Name Financial Transactions and Confidentiality (ARNFTC) was passed in the plenary session in the National Assembly on May 2 2014 and will come into effect on November 29 2014. This amendment prohibits parties to a financial transaction from entering into the transaction by another's real name (borrowed name transaction) and imposes a criminal and administrative penalty and civil disadvantages on the violators. The contents of the amendment include several main points. The amendment includes a prohibition on borrowed name transactions by parties to a financial transaction. The version of ARNFTC in force only imposes on financial institutions and others the duty to use the real name of the party to the financial transaction. Moreover, the existing ARNFTC leaves open the question of interpretation as to whether financial transactions not by a real name include borrowed name transactions. The amended ARNFTC prohibits borrowed name transactions by providing that 'it is prohibited to conduct financial transactions by using another person's real name for the purpose of hiding unlawful properties, money laundering, or providing funds for terrorism or avoidance of enforcement and any other illegal acts' and subjects offenders to a possible jail term of five years or less or fine of W50 million or less. However, the amended provisions limit the prohibited borrowed name transactions to cases where certain purposes are found, such as the hiding of unlawful properties. Moreover, although the amendment prohibits borrowed name transactions with the purpose of 'any other illegal acts', it does not provide the definition of 'illegal acts'; therefore, it is uncertain how the amendment will be applicable to transactions in practice.

Elias Neocleous Following the entry into force of the Alternative Investment Funds Law of 2014 (AIF Law) on July 27, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has issued guidance on transitional arrangements. The AIF Law regulates the establishment and operation of alternative investment funds (AIFs) in Cyprus and replaces the International Collective Investment Schemes Laws of 1999 and 2000 (ICIS Laws). It designates CySEC as the supervisory authority for AIFs. Following article 4(1)(a) of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, the AIF Law defines an AIF as 'a collective investment undertaking, including investment compartments thereof, which raises capital from a number of investors with a view to investing it in accordance with a defined investment policy for the benefit of those investors and is not authorised as an Undertaking for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (Ucits) in accordance with section 9 of the Open-Ended Undertakings for Collective Investments Law of 2012'.

Azleen Mohammed Saleh The guidelines on sukuk and private debt securities in Malaysia were recently revised and took effect on August 28 2014. One of the revisions made was on the tradability and transferability of unrated sukuk and private debt securities. Effective from January 1 2015, unrated sukuk and unrated private debt securities may be traded and transferred provided that: (i) they have been in the market for at least two years; (ii) they are offered only to sophisticated investors; and (iii) the requirements for revision of principal terms and conditions as specified under the guidelines on sukuk or private debt securities have been complied with. Alternatively, for rated sukuk and rated private debt securities, the issuer may discontinue the credit rating of the sukuk or the private debt securities and maintain their tradability and transferability provided that: (i) they have been in the market for at least two years; (ii) they are offered only to sophisticated investors; (iii) the requirements for revision of principal terms and conditions as specified under the guidelines on sukuk or private debt securities have been complied with; and (iv) at least one annual rating review has been completed after January 1 2015.

James Sattin A timeless standard by which to assess the ease of doing business in a given jurisdiction, and, indeed, the strength of an economy, is access to credit. With this connection between access to credit and ease of doing business in mind, Panama has recently updated its legislation governing the creation of security interests on personal property by means of Law 129 of 2013. Intended to replace the outdated Decree Law 2 of 1955, the stated purpose of Law 129 is to 'promote access to credit and modernise the system of security interests on personal property.' In particular, some of the shortcomings of the prior regulatory framework were the high costs involved in obtaining credit, the cumbersome and repetitive registration process, the prohibition on obtaining a second or third mortgage on the same property, and the limitations placed on the rates and timeframes of the security instrument. Law 129, based on the model prepared by the Organization of American States (OAS) used in similar legislation throughout Latin America, provides numerous advantages to businesses seeking credit, and especially to small businessmen, who are typically only able to provide security in the form of movable property rather than real estate. Specifically, Law 129 enlarges the types of goods upon which a security interest can be placed, such as the inventory of a business and its intangibles, including trademarks, patents, and intellectual property. Further, the newly-enacted law allows for successive mortgages on the same good, establishes priority rules for security interests, provides a mechanism for the return of money to the consumer when the value of the secured goods exceeds the amount of the outstanding obligation, and streamlines the registration process by replacing the necessity of a public deed for personal property, with the submission of certain forms or sworn declarations which can be directly registered with the public registry, thus saving both time and money.

The recent changes are broadly positive. But Borja Garci´a-Alama´n and José María Gil-Robles explain why they don’t mark the end of the journey