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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
"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 ...
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 ...
The Office of Fair Trading has written to a number of undisclosed companies in the construction industry, in relation to its ongoing investigation into a suspected multi-billion pound bid rigging cartel. It is offering the "late comers" a last chance to mitigate the potential fines which might be ascending upon them in the biggest cartel investigation in UK history ...
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 ...
Some things change, others never change. The choice of procurement route is still governed by three main factors:· Time· Cost· Quality It is hard, if not impossible to achieve the best of all these three but when choosing a procurement route consideration must be given to the list of priorities so that people's expectations are properly managed ...
On 10 May 2007, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) issued its "Notice on the Adjustments to the Overseas Investment Scope of Overseas Wealth Management Business of Commercial Banks on behalf of their Clients". This Notice widens the investment scope permitted under the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors scheme (QDII) applicable to commercial banks (including Chinese banks and approved foreign banks in China) ...
The SFC's feedback on their recent round of inspections of Investment Advisers (IAs) was shared with members of the Institute of Financial Planners of Hong Kong on 8 May 2007. The SFC reported that the main issues they identified were: insufficient knowledge of clients and lack of justification to illustrate suitability of advice ...
The SFC recently appointed Mr. Mark Steward from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) as Executive Director of Enforcement. While enforcement initiatives of the SFC under his new leadership are still evolving, reference to the past record of ASIC’s enforcement may provide some hints ...
On 7 May 2007, the SFC updated the Licensing Related Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on its website under the heading, "Other Topics relating to the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO)".The updated FAQs assist licensed corporations or licensed applicants in understanding the SFC's view on factors relating to suitability of business premises ...
A licensed corporation, registered institution, licensed individual, substantial shareholder of a licensed corporation, corporate licence applicant or an individual licence applicant can apply to the SFC to have certain sections of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) or any provision of rules made by the SFC modified or waived under the SFO according to section 134 of the SFO ...
On 11 June 2007, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a circular (http://www.sfc.hk/sfcRegulatoryHandbook/EN/displayFileServlet?docno=H461) outlining a set of initiatives to streamline and simplify its licensing processes. The circular, which provides practical guidance to fund managers intending to apply to the SFC for a licence, is principally directed at overseas hedge fund managers from the US and the UK ...
The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce upholds a strong position as one of the most important centres of international arbitration. The steady growth in the number of cases involving foreign parties that are administered by the Arbitration Institute convincingly demonstrates its worldwide popularity and reputation ...
Regulation 45-106 respecting prospectus and registration exemptions (“Regulation 45-106”) has caused much concern and plenty of ink to flow since it came into force on September 14, 2005. The purpose of this newsletter is to discuss the modification made by Regulation 45-106 with respect to the restrictions that must be contained in an issuer’s constating documents in order for the issuer to have private issuer status(1) ...
The Federal Circuit, in an opinion written by Judge Rader and joined by Judges Lourie and Prost, has determined that a termination of a contract for the government’s convenience does not terminate obligations to perform warranty and software upgrade services under the contract. The Court of Federal Claims, in a well-reasoned opinion by Judge Miller, had determined otherwise ...
On 16 March 2007, the National People’s Congress issued the Property Law of the People’s Republic of China. Effective on 1 October 2007, the Law defines the scope of property and property-related rights, such as use and possession, and sets out the protections afforded to State, collective and private property owners.BackgroundWork on the Property Law first began in 1993 ...