WiMax, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a new product developing in Chile that promises to revolutionise Internet access. WiMax allows high speed transmission of data and multimedia services (e.g., the Internet and videos) from laptops, cell phones and other portable devices from distances greater than was possible with previous technologies. According to some preliminary tests, WiMax equipment can reach up to 40 km in open spaces ...
The financial services industry recently witnessed a plethora of competition investigations. The banking sector, in particular, has attracted the attention of competition watchdogs in an increasingly complex regulatory environment. Following an 18-month European sector enquiry, UK banks seem to have largely escaped the danger of significant enforcement actions, except possibly in relation to credit cards ...
The U.S. Department of Justice’s revised corporate charging policy, which was named after deputy attorney general Paul McNulty, was unveiled in December 2006. In the wake of its predecessor document, the 2003 Thompson Memo, we have seen a steady increase in the resolution of corporate criminal investigations without indictments or trials ...
Much has been made of the e-communication provisions set out in the new Companies Act 2006. However, less is known of a piece of legislation which came into force on 1 January 2007, the Companies (Registrar, Languages and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2006, which affect the electronic communications of every company and limited liability partnership in the UK ...
Immediate access to the latest data is essential for business. The Internet and other networks ensure that data are readily accessible. But easy access to data carries with it certain risks, including the risk of unauthorised access. According to research by Gartner in 2006, 80 percent of companies will have suffered an application security incident by 2009 ...
"Outsourcing" is defined as an event in which the regulated financial services firm (the "outsourcing entity"), contracts with a service provider to perform any aspect of the outsourcing entity's regulated or unregulated functions that could otherwise be undertaken by the entity itself. The service provider may be a related party within a corporate group, or an unrelated third party entity ...
A Chinese commercial bank recently launched an investment product under the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors scheme (QDII) which takes in Renminbi funds from mainland investors and invests in offshore equity funds, fixed income instruments and money market products denominated in foreign currencies. This is an important breakthrough as previously QDII products from banks only invested in fixed income instruments ...
Advocate General Sharpston has recently expressed her opinion in the Commission v Republic of Finland case that ensuring a sufficient degree of transparency for the award of sub-threshold procurements should be determined by national law, rather than Community law. If these views were to be followed by the ECJ, it would provide renewed impetus to create national rules on low value awards and represent a meaningful evolution of the ECJ's past case law ...
In our July 2006 legal update, we reported on a ground-breaking agreement (Agreement) signed by the Hong Kong and Mainland China Governments, under which they agreed to recognise and enforce judgments made in each others courts. Legislative changes are now underway in Hong Kong in order to implement the Agreement ...
The countdown towards implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is well underway. The Directive, which replaces the existing Investment Services Directive, is due to come into force across the European Union by 1 November 2007. Member States are required to have the necessary enabling legislation and regulatory rules in final form by 31 January ...
Under UCITS Regulations, UCITS III funds are permitted to use financial derivative instruments (FDIs) not only for hedging but also as part of their general investment policies. The Irish Financial Regulator requires that the risks involved in using FDI are properly managed, measured and monitored in an ongoing basis through designing and implementing a comprehensive risk management process (RMP) ...
In a speech on 20 November 2006, Mrs Alexa Lam, the SFC's Executive Director of Intermediaries and Investment Products, announced that the SFC will continue its focus on ensuring that financial products are not mis-sold in Hong Kong and that investors are provided with appropriate advice from their investment advisers (IAs) ...
In late 2006, China’s National Social Security Fund Council for the first time granted overseas mandates to 10 global investment managers to manage in total USD 1 billion of the National Social Security Fund (“NSSF”). It is reported that the NSSF, China’s national pension fund of last resort, has total assets worth of around USD30 billion.The 10 managers are AllianceBernstein, Allianz, AXA Rosenberg, BlackRock, JanusINTECH, Invesco, PIMCO, State Street Global Advisors, T ...
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) recently issued draft rules namely, Regulatory Measures on Offshore Investment of Insurance Assets, governing China's insurance companies' investment in their assets offshore and the appointment of foreign investment managers ...
The role that Asian banks will play in film financing in Asia is a challenging and necessary one as we continue to see the fast paced growth of the Asian film industries. Asia is, so far, an untapped resource of ideas, stories, shooting locations, skilled crew, talent and effective film making techniques ...
On November 9, 2006, the Minister of Justice, Yvon Marcoux, introduced Bill 48, entitled An Act to amend the Consumer Protection Act and the Act respecting the collection of certain debts (hereinafter, the “Bill”).The Bill is based on the Internet Sales Contract Harmonization Template agreed on by the provinces further to the Agreement on Internal Trade ...
Pursuant to the Act on Supervision of Financial Market, the National Bank of Slovakia has issued this Measure, which defines the content, format, terms, form, method, procedure and place of submitting the reports of the allotment funds, which issue allotment fund certificates in the Slovak Republic, by asset management companies and branches of foreign asset management companies for statistical purposes. This Measure is published in the Bulletin of the National Bank of Slovakia (Issue No ...
Side letters are a common phenomenon encountered by hedge fund managers today. These letters are often used to secure better fees for key investors and to give preferential or improved access to information about underlying investments and liquidity. They also provide what are commonly referred to as most favoured nation provisions, meaning that if the fund offers better terms to another investor, the early-stage investors will also be able to take those new or better terms ...
In September 2006, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) released the Consultation Conclusions on the draft guidelines on marketing materials for listed structured products (Guidelines). The Guidelines, to be published under section 399 of the SFO, will replace the current guidelines, which take the form of a letter to warrant issuers. The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong will continue to require compliance with the revised Guidelines as a condition to the listing of structured products ...
The IT outsourcing market has matured in the past years. Many IT outsourcing relationships are fruitful and long lasting. Nevertheless international surveys continue to show that numerous outsourcing deals are untimely terminated in the first two to four years. This paper highlights the key risk factors for failure of IT outsourcing relationships. These key risk factors will be underlined by various failed outsourcing case law. Such case law probably only represents the top of the iceberg ...
As expected, the latest set of EU regulations regarding collective investment schemes - the undertakings for collective investments in transferable securities (Ucits III) - has opened up an exciting new spectrum of product possibilities for the investment funds industry in Europe. Since December 2004 there has been a new range of creative product offerings being authorised by the Irish financial regulator under the Ucits III banner ...
A spectacular smash-up always draws a crowd. In the outsourcing world, where the wreckage is nearly always kept under wraps, that’s even more true. When a problem deal does break into view, it’s always worth watching for lessons in how to manage – or how not to manage – these complex transactions ...
