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Ignacio Buil Aldana Alicia Galindo Aragoncillo The Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria (SAREB), also known as Spain's 'bad bank', created in November 2012, has become one of the major players in the distressed market. Since mid-2013, it has sold approximately 9000 assets for €3,500 million and still holds billions of euros of assets, which makes SAREB a very relevant lender of record in many distressed situations in Spain. Despite SAREB's key role in the distressed market, it has been unclear whether it should be deemed a financial entity in the context of a Spanish Scheme (such schemes apply exclusively to financial entities according to Spanish law) and, therefore, whether SAREB should be taken into consideration for majority purposes; and, more importantly, whether SAREB could be crammed-down under a Spanish Scheme. SAREB's activity is supervised by European authorities and by Spanish authorities (such as the Bank of Spain), even if it is not per se a financial entity due to its particular nature and its specific corporate purpose.

Soonghee Lee The Supreme Court of Korea rendered an en banc decision on four knock-in/knock-out currency option cases (the KIKO cases) last September. In the KIKO cases, the Korean exporters argued that the KIKO currency option contracts (the KIKO contracts) were void, and should either be rescinded or terminated. They argued that the banks had waived the exercise of their call options, and sought the return of monies paid to the banks as unjust gains; they also argued that the banks had committed tort by violating their obligation to explain and violating the suitability principle during the process of entering into the KIKO contracts, and claimed compensation for damages. A summary of the major legal principles determined by the Supreme Court last September is as follows.

Urs Kägi Several new Swiss laws and amendments have entered into force as of January 1 2014. For firms doing business in Switzerland, changes in executive compensation regulation, in reorganisation proceedings and in respect to redundancy plans are among the most important ones. In Switzerland, the preceding year was characterised by animated discussion on executive compensation which resulted in two milestone decisions on national constitutional referendums. In March 2013, Swiss voters approved the initiative of lawmaker Thomas Minder by a strong majority of 68%. This initiative, which was supported by both left-wing and certain conservative right-wing parties, requires the strengthening of shareholders' powers in public companies, mandating among other things a binding say-on-pay-vote. In November 2013, a large majority of more than 65% of Swiss voters rejected the young socialists' 1:12 initiative, which aimed at introducing a salary cap of 12 times the lowest salary within the same firm. The two unambiguous results sent a strong message for the years to come: executive compensation needs to be regulated by a tight corporate governance regime but not by governmental intervention such as salary caps. Viewed from this perspective, these decisions are well in line with Switzerland's traditional business-friendly attitude and faith in "democratic" self-regulation (including by shareholders' vote), although the Minder initiative unfortunately also provides for prohibitions of certain forms of compensation (backed up by criminal sanctions), which is unnecessarily rigid.

The Financial Services Act 2013 (FSA – a consolidation of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989, Payment Systems Act 2003, Insurance Act 1996 and Exchange Control Act 1953) came into force on June 30 2013. The FSA gives Bank Negara Malaysia (the Malaysian Central Bank – BNM) increased supervisory powers and flexibility to deal with risks – much needed in today's challenging global financial system.

The FCA’s recent effort to protect retail investors should be lauded, but it could shut certain issuers out of the market. Herbert Smith Freehills' Andrew Roberts and Emily Wilson explain why

When resolving M&A-related disputes, which jurisdiction makes the most sense?

The struggle to regulate China’s growing peer-to-peer lending sector

An Act coming into force by June introduces insider trading regulations applicable to listed investment corporations, typically Japanese real estate investment trusts

Iosco's Tajinder Singh and the Milken Institute's Chris Brummer go head-to-head on this month's debate

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett's Patrick Baron and Proskauer Rose's Maximilian Kirchner analyse the new approaches to change of control transactions in bond indentures