The economic shock and disruption caused by the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2-Virus (COVID-19-pandemic) resulted in unprecedented circumstances for companies and prompted recent emergency rescue measures by the German legislator. In the following, we are highlighting two major legislative measures that will come into force in the next few days.

Legislative changes to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19-pandemic with respect to specific contract, corporate, insolvency and criminal law matters (the “COVInsAG”)

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked” – Warren Buffet

The tide has gone out on the municipal finance market.

While much of the discussion about the financial fall-out of the COVID-19 virus has focused on the massive wealth destruction in stock markets and pressure on corporates around the world, the impact on the largest financial market in the world- the $3 trillion US municipal finance market- cannot be ignored. Simply put, the market is imploding.

Last Friday, in response to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the German government announced various measures described as a big "bazooka" to avert a crisis in the Eurozone's largest economy. The German development bank KfW will play a key role in the context of the announced measures and has been tasked to provide liquidity assistance to German companies hit by the pandemic.

Regulatory capital requirements for prudentially supervised financial services companies across Europe are complex and changing rapidly. To keep track of the regulatory framework in the region, we have brought together the essential features of bank regulation in our EMEA Regulatory Capital wall chart.

Introduction

1. Introduction

On 25 August 2010, the German government published a draft of an Act for the Restructuring and Orderly Liquidation of Credit Institutions, for the Establishment of Restructuring Fund for Credit Institutions and for the Extension of the Limitation Period of Corporate Law Management Liability (Restrukturierungsgesetz, the “German Restructuring Act”). It is anticipated that the German Restructuring Act will soon be introduced to the German parliament and be passed quickly.