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

RBI faces a difficult decision in how to deal with the United Bank of India State-owned United Bank of India (UBI) might hold the dubious distinction of being Asia's first bank to see its capital ratios fall below Basel III requirements. But while regulators elsewhere have committed to allowing weak banks to fail in an orderly fashion, the Indian government might bail out the bank rather than bailing in bondholders. The move could, however, cause the international community to question the regulator's commitment to Basel III.

The Banten power plant is Indonesia's first power project not to require government support for the obligations of state utility PLN under the power purchase agreement (PPA).

What comes first – more deals or harmonised takeover rules?

All the nominees for this year's IFLR European awards

China’s government might not allow its banks to default until it finalises its bankruptcy regulations for financial institutions

A lack of prime RMBS issuance last year created a window for non-conforming and more bespoke trades. Here’s what to expect from 2014

Costas Stamatiou Following the bail-in of depositors as a condition of international financial support to Cyprus in March 2013, restrictive measures were imposed on deposits within the Cyprus banking system as of March 15 2013. These restrictions are gradually being relaxed, and the government has announced that it hopes to remove them entirely in the first few months of 2014. It should be noted that the restrictive measures apply only to funds within the Cyprus banking system as of March 15 2013. Any funds introduced after that date are free of any restriction. Further progress towards the normalisation of the banking system has been made with the release by Bank of Cyprus, the largest commercial bank, of €950 million ($1.3 billion) of blocked deposits. When the bank was recapitalised in July 2013, €2.9 billion of deposits were blocked. The target date for release of the first tranche of €950 million was the end of January 2014, with an option for the bank to roll over the deposits for a further period of six months. Having established evidence of improving stability in its deposit base and an increasing level of customer confidence, the bank's management determined that there was no need to exercise the option to roll over the deposits, and accordingly released them. The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Cyprus have welcomed this move as a significant step in strengthening the confidence of the public and investors, and as an indication that the banking system is on course for stabilisation.

Manuel Follía María Lérida Due to the loan portfolios that financial entities have accumulated over the past boom years, a large number of Spanish companies are struggling with payment defaults and consequently facing debt workouts. Certain debt restructurings include so-called pre-insolvency arrangements (pre-concurso), a preliminary stage ahead of any potential formal insolvency process. According to section 5bis of the Spanish Insolvency Act, this stage allows debtors to temporarily avoid filing for insolvency if they notify the relevant court (within a two-month period as of being in a state of actual or imminent insolvency) that they have commenced negotiations with creditors in order to reach either: (i) an out-of-court refinancing agreement (acuerdo de refinanciación); (ii) an early composition agreement (propuesta anticipada de convenio); or (iii) an out-of-court payment agreement (acuerdo extrajudicial de pago). This notification will provide debtors with an additional period of three months to reach an agreement, plus one additional month to file for insolvency if no agreement has been reached.