Kazakhstan's biggest development in the field of restructuring in 2010 was undoubtedly the Special Financial Court of Almaty's decision to recognise a plan for BTA Bank. In part, the rescue was made possible by the provisions of the Restructuring Law, which is similar to UK and US corporate rescue regimes and is intended to allow bank restructurings to be recognised in London, New York and other leading financial centres. Read article

The provision of finance without collateral, or with insufficient collateral, is considered a breach of fiduciary duty, which constitutes the crime of breach of trust. However, providing urgently needed finance to a company in a critical state of near-insolvency may not constitute an offence of this kind if such financing could support the company's recovery and prevent the finance provider's existing claims from becoming uncollectable as a result of the company's insolvency. In such circumstances, financing may be provided without security.

Standard & Poor's issued an update (the "Update") last week indicating that it could issue a de-linked, asset-based credit rating for securities issued in a securitization sponsored by an insured depository institution ("Bank") that qualifies as a sale under GAAP, even if the transaction fails to comply with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's new securitization safe harbor rule (the "Rule").

REDUCING RISKS OF DIRECTOR LIABILITY – Directors and managers are granted a broad range of authority. This article examines how directors and managers become personally liable to the company for their actions, strategies to prevent these situations from occurring, and how being prepared can help protect the company when these circumstances arise. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and this article will help reduce the risks borne individually and by any company operating in China.

Kenichi Horie was a promising auto engineer, exactly the sort of youthful talent Japan needs to maintain its edge over hungry Korean and Chinese rivals, the International Herald Tribune reported. As a worker in his early 30s at a major carmaker, Mr. Horie won praise for his design work on advanced biofuel systems. But like many young Japanese, he was a so-called irregular worker, kept on a temporary staff contract with little of the job security and half the salary of the “regular” employees, most of them workers in their late 40s or older.

Inflation fears—fueled by spiraling food, oil and raw material prices—are mounting around the globe, prompting the head of the European Central Bank to signal that it could raise interest rates in the future even though some countries have been weakened by the Continent's debt crisis. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal ahead of this week's annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jean-Claude Trichet warned that inflation pressures in the euro zone must be watched closely, and urged central bankers everywhere to ensure that higher energy and food pri

The Securities and Futures Commission following the collapse of Lehman has been committed to revamping and codifying the structure and methods of selling structured and other investment products in Hong Kong.

What are credit risk mitigation instruments (CRMI) and CRMC? A CRMI is defined as a credit risk mitigation agreement, certificate or other simple and basic credit derivative product for the purpose of managing credit risk. A CRMI is therefore essentially a credit derivative product.

Introduction In recent Swiss restructurings the question has arisen of whether a debt-to-equity swap, executed as a restructuring measure, can be challenged through an avoidance action or can constitute a prohibited – and thus voidable – set-off if the company becomes bankrupt upon execution of the debt-to-equity swap. This update elaborates on these risks and describes a scenario where bank­ruptcy proceedings are opened or a composition moratorium is announced shortly after the com­pletion of a debt-to-equity swap.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) has issued the "Provisional Measures for the Administration of Utilisation of Insurance Funds", effective 31 August 2010, which apply to capital and assets of Chinese insurance group holding companies and insurance companies.