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To reduce the public administration's indebtedness as defined in EU Regulation 479/2009, the Ministry of Economy and Finance can issue government bonds to raise funds. These can be granted to Italian regions for the repurchase of outstanding regional bonds with an average residual life of at least five years and an outstanding nominal amount higher than €250 million ($324 million) and for the early termination of associated derivative transactions.

On August 1 2014, the President of the Republic of Congo authorised the ratification of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (the DTAA) with Mauritius. The DTAA was signed on December 20 2010 and will come into force in Mauritius on the date as specified by the Minister in a notice published in the Government Gazette.

Yuichi Miyashita The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is developing proposals addressing gone-concern loss-absorbing capacity (GLAC) for consideration and action at the G20's summit in Brisbane, Australia in November 2014. Although still under discussion at the time of writing, global systemically important banks (G-Sibs) may, in the future, be required to maintain a certain amount of GLAC to offset losses in the event such G-Sibs fail. The FSB has stated that GLAC is vital for authorities to have confidence and for private markets to recognise, that systemically important banks can be resolved in times of crisis without the support of public funds, while taking account of the differences in national resolution regimes. If the scope of GLAC covers senior debts that can be bailed in, a new bail-in mechanism will likely need to be introduced in Japan. The existing resolution regime, which was introduced in March 2014 through an amendment of the Deposit Insurance Act of Japan, only provides for bail-in mechanisms (write-downs or conversions of a financial institution's capital instruments) in relation to certain qualified preferred shares and subordinated debts.

Terje Gulbrandsen Ketil Sellæg Ramberg Personal data and privacy law issues raise a number of issues in a company's day-to-day business and may be significant in many transactions. That being said, personal data issues have not played an important role in M&A, although they may turn out to be more important than previously thought. As a means of guidance, and not as an exhaustive list, the following checklist may be useful in your next transaction; either as seller in preparation of a future sale, or as buyer when performing due diligence. Is the company a data processor that is obliged to obtain a licence from the local data protection authority, or will a notification to the relevant authority be sufficient? If the company is obliged to have a licence, it is important to review this licence. Is the company handling sensitive data (health data, trade union membership, racial or ethnic origin, sex life, information with regards to criminal acts) or just regular personal data (information that may be linked to a natural person)? Does the company have a security strategy and how is the company handling their internal control? Does the company have any security zones? If so, how is access granted and denied? Is it possible to track such access? Has the company entered into any data processor agreements? Has the company performed a security audit? If so, were any discrepancies discovered? Has the company been subject to review from the local data protection authorities? If so, any report from such a review should be provided. Has the company entered into agreements with regards to the transfer of personal data to third countries? Is aggregated data or big data in some form used in the business? If so, is the data properly anonymised or would it be possible to re-identify the data subject? If not, how is the data subject's consent obtained and kept? Is customer data used in the business? If so, how is the data subject's consent obtained and kept? If the company is developing internal systems, is the company complying with privacy by design guidelines? Is the company storing internal or external data in the cloud? How are security measures taken? Is the company certain that personal data stored in the cloud is kept in the country or is the personal data transferred to third countries? Does the company have a data protection officer? Terje Gulbrandsen and Ketil Sellæg Ramberg

Ha Hoang Loc Under existing regulations, for shares or equity acquisition between offshore buyers and domestic shareholders of a 100% Vietnamese target company, payment for the acquisition should be made in Vietnam directly between the parties. However, the above payment scheme may no longer be acceptable. On August 11 2014, the State Bank of Vietnam issued Circular 19/2014/TT-NHNN (Circular 19) which will take effect from September 22 2014. Accordingly, if an offshore buyer acquires existing shares or equity from Vietnamese shareholders and directly participates in management and operation of the target company post-completion, they may have to make payment through one of the following channels.

This October marks the one-year anniversary of the city-state’s sweeping sponsor regulations. Slaughter and May's John Moore assesses how the they’ve changed the market

Rashid Bahar and Thomas Reutter of Bär & Karrer analyse two new bills that seek to widen the regulation of Swiss financial services

Vassiliyan Zanev and Arnaud Barchman of Loyens & Loeff explain what Luxembourg has been doing to make it the EU Islamic finance hub

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Caoimhe Clarkin and Liam Kennedy of A&L Goodbody discuss how Ireland has responded to the surge in cross-border litigation since the financial crisis