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Nao Ohira The Financial Services Agency of Japan published proposed amendments (the Amendments) and started to accept public comments, to ordinances and other legislation relating to the Money Lending Business Act, on January 27 2014. The purpose of the Amendments is to exclude (under certain conditions) restrictions imposed by the Money Lending Business Act (the Regulations) in cases where a company makes a loan to another company belonging to the same group, and also in cases where an investor who owns shares in a joint venture business makes a loan to such business. Under the Money Lending Business Act, a person who intends to engage in a money lending business must be registered with the relevant government authority, satisfy strict conditions and abide by various regulations.

Pedro Cortés Marta Mourão Teixeira On January 14 2014, the Macau Monetary Authority reported that, according to the 2014 Report on the Index of Economic Freedom (the Index) drawn by the Heritage Foundation, the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) takes 29th place amongst the 178 ranked global economic systems, as well as seventh place out of 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, right after Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Chinese Taiwan and Japan. The score awarded to Macau's economic freedom is 71.3. Its overall score is quite higher than both world and regional averages.

The introduction of new substance requirements for global business companies operating from Mauritius, which will become effective on January 1 2015, are part and parcel of a strategy to further boost financial services and increase their input to the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

In 2013, Mauritius proceeded with the inauguration of a modern state-of-the-art passenger terminal at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport. The new terminal, which covers a total surface area of 57,000 m2, will enable the country to handle 4 million passengers annually (against 2.7 million presently), whilst helping to project Mauritius on the international scene and boost commercial exchanges and the tourism industry. The main idea is to provide the latest in terms of infrastructure in order to increase the number of foreigners entering Mauritius.

Olga Barreto of Consortium explains the rights and obligations of the country's microcredit entities

Banji Adenusi In December 2013, the Central Bank of Nigeria released the guidelines on the implementation of Basel II/III recommendations of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which implementation took effect from January 2014. While the timeframe for implementation of the minimum capital adequacy computation under Basel II rules will commence in June 2014, the banks have already begun a parallel run of the Basel II capital adequacy computation along with existing Basel I requirements. In specifying the approaches for quantifying the risk-weighted assets for the purpose of determining regulatory capital, the banks are required to adopt the standardised approach in relation to market and credit risks, with the basic indicator approach adopted for operational risk. Rather than adopt a sweeping endorsement of the Basel II/III accords however, the Central Bank (CBN) has modified the guidelines, taking into consideration the present realities of the Nigerian banking system. Credit risk modifications abound in the risk weight assigned to inter-bank transactions and exposures guaranteed by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) or CBN, exposures to FGN or CBN transactions denominated in naira and funded in that currency, amongst others, which carry risk weight of 0%. Other modifications include exposures secured by residential mortgage loans, which carry a risk weight of 100%, compared to the recommended 35% in the Basel II accord. Unrated on-balance sheet securitisation carries a risk weight of 1250%, whereas the Basel II accord provides no risk weight for such transaction.

In late 2013, the Slovak Parliament approved an amendment to the income tax act (the Amendment). One of the objectives of the Amendment is to fight tax evasion. Some of the most interesting changes are: higher withholding rate/tax security; the right to tax Slovak tax non-residents on certain transactions; introduction of tax licences; and, tax rate for legal entities reduced to 22%. Higher withholding rate

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.

The first Fibra to raise international debt offers important lessons for Mexico’s budding real-estate investment trust sector

Bank and corporate counsel shed light on how European issuers and acquirers should navigate the abundance of new funding opportunities