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Market participants reveal their key concerns with European policymakers’ latest attempt to harmonise and regulate cross-border trading

Jan Willem Möller of Loyens & Loeff analyses why the country is emerging as the eurozone’s hub for dim sum bonds

Esin Attorney Partnership's Muhsin Keskin on how the country's comprehensive capital markets reforms will cause fundamental shifts in local primary markets

In Europe, the pace, complexity and interconnectedness of post-crisis regulation continues. New regimes stack on top of old, blocking out the lights of 100 in-house office windows. Directives are replaced and contradicted; domestic interpretations confuse EU regimes; integration with Dodd-Frank looms on the horizon.

US ABS is hoping for something more exciting The asset-backed securities (ABS) market appears to be in full recovery mode. The figures for 2013 were close to their 2000 levels, with increases in auto loans and esoterics helping to pick up the slack created by the dark cloud still hanging over the mortgage industry. The real sign of the market's return however, is its creativity. Though a large amount of vanilla deals are often the hallmark of a market returned to full health, ABS has always thrived on innovation. The trick will be balancing that innovation with appropriate risk management techniques. While there will always be downturns, the latter will help manage those dips in a way that leaves confidence intact, thereby allowing innovation to rebuild the market.

The European Commission's (EC's) proposal to reform regional banks' trading activities is the latest in a line of misguided attempts to prevent a repeat of the 2007 – 2008 global financial crisis. Previously, the UK had favoured a structural split that would force banks to detach their risky trading activities from their retail operations. In the US, the Volcker rule imposes a ban on proprietary trading in the banking group. Europe's recent offering includes both structural separation provisions and a Volcker equivalent that would ban proprietary trading.

The further erosion of investor protections is set to define this year's high-yield market. Here are the covenants giving issuers even greater flexibility

Exchangeables out of Asia are just as rare CP Foods' exchangeable bond was the first out of Thailand and the country's first equity-linked product since BTS Group's convertible in January 2011. Market participants have described exchangeables out of Asia as 'rare beasts.' Deal counsel had to get investors comfortable with not only a product from a new jurisdiction, but also its tense political situation given opposition leaders had promised to start a month of protests to shut down Bangkok from January 13.

Law enforcement authorities are cooperating more closely in tackling international fraud and bribery cases, leading to an increase in prosecutions and penalties around the world last year.

Hong Kong has certainly advertised its advantages as an international listing destination. But Japanese retailer Fast Retailing's listing of Hong Kong Depositary Receipts (HDRs) has highlighted the problems with the HDR regime, and more broadly, its rules for overseas company listings.