In early September, the Ukraine Parliament passed a law legalizing and regulating Bitcoin, step one in an ambitious campaign to both mainstream the nation’s thriving trade in crypto and to rebrand the entire country, the New York Times reported. “The big idea is to become one of the top jurisdictions in the world for crypto companies,” said Alexander Bornyakov, deputy minister at the two-year old Ministry of Digital Transformation.
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Resources Per Country
- Albania
- Austria
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Gibraltar
- Greece
- Guernsey
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Isle of Man
- Italy
- Jersey
- Kosovo
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Vatican City
Boom-era property player Bernard McNamara’s multi-million euro pension pot is protected from his creditors following an EU court ruling, the Irish Times reported. The British high court declared Mr McNamara bankrupt in 2012 on his own application. He was one of many Irish developers who opted to bankrupt themselves in the UK, where the bankruptcy period was one year, rather than in the Republic, where it was 12 years at the time. The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that creditors cannot get access to an insurance policy that was part of his Irish-registered pension.
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Tightening monetary policy now to rein in inflation could choke off the euro zone's recovery, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Monday, pushing back on calls and market bets for tighter policy, Reuters reported. With inflation already twice its 2% target and likely rising further later this year, the ECB is coming under increased pressure to abandon its ultra easy monetary policy and tackle price growth that is eroding households' purchasing power.
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A Yorkshire-based company director who fraudulently obtained £150,000 in Covid-19 financial assistance has been banned, along with a friend who also took £50,000, the U.K. Insolvency Service has revealed, the Yorkshire Post reported. Muneef Ihsan was director of three companies between 2019 and 2020. All three, Porthart Ltd, Bargain Basement 90 Ltd and Bargains Basement 90 Ltd, were registered at the same residential address in Rotherham, and were each placed into voluntary liquidation by Muneef Ihsan in September 2020.
Dutch cooperative Rabobank said on Monday it had been ordered by the Dutch central bank to fix its customer due diligence practices and that it is facing a "punitive enforcement procedure," Reuters reported. In a statement, Rabobank said it had received an instruction from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) on Oct. 12 to remedy deficiencies in its compliance with laws against money laundering. It said it was too early to say whether the procedure would result in a fine.
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Deutsche Lufthansa AG repaid the last of its 9 billion-euro ($10.3 billion) bailout ahead of schedule, paving the way for the German government to sell its stake in the airline group for a significant profit, Bloomberg News reported. A recovery in international travel and successful refinancing measures allowed the airline to return the taxpayer cash, it said in a statement Friday. The state stands to net close to $1 billion in profit once it sells its 14% holding over the next two years. “It was good business for the treasury,” German finance minister Olaf Scholz said in a statement.
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British private-sector employers expect to raise staff pay by an average of 2.5% over the next 12 months, well below the likely rate of inflation, according to a survey that could ease worries at the Bank of England about the risk of a wage-price spiral, Reuters reported. The quarterly figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) suggested that companies were taking only cautious steps to battle growing recruitment difficulties.
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Two accountants appointed to find a way forward through examinership for two insolvent building firms are to investigate a number of matters of concern, a judge has ruled. It is thought to be the first joint examinership in Ireland, the Irish Independent reported. Judge John O’Connor, after appointing chartered accountants Joe Walsh and John Healy as joint examiners to Trinity Homes Limited and a related company, Yeronga Ltd, noted they would review a dividend payment of almost €1m by Trinity Homes to a former director.
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PricewaterhouseCoopers' Greek affiliate has agreed to pay $14.9 million to settle with Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. shareholders who accused the auditor of failing to catch a $300 million fraud, Reuters reported. If approved by a federal judge in Manhattan, the deal proposed on Tuesday would end a Utah pension fund's claims that the auditor recklessly disregarded red flags when it audited the fuel transport company's financial statements in 2016. PwC Greece did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.
Credit Suisse’s legal charges started rising last year as it sought to clear civil cases in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Credit Suisse Group AG CS 0.40% is vowing to end reckless risk-taking at the bank. The cost of earlier misdeeds are likely to keep biting back for years, weighing on efforts to put the past behind it. The Swiss lender suffered twin disasters this year from the implosion of family office Archegos Capital Management and financing partner Greensill Capital’s bankruptcy.