Clifford Chance recently hosted the sixteenth edition of the Global Funds Conference in Luxembourg. Experts from Clifford Chance, along with industry leaders, discussed developments in responsible investing and digital assets, as well as the latest regional and global legal, regulatory, tax, and market developments. The discussions addressed the challenges and opportunities faced by the industry, as well as evolving market practices.

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We are pleased to present the third edition of our guide to restructuring and insolvency laws and procedures across key jurisdictions in the Asia Pacific region. This updated guide provides an overview of each jurisdiction’s applicable laws and regulations on key areas of concern, with chapters covering Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Restructuring and insolvency activity remains elevated across the region, following the COVID-19 pandemic and a period of higher interest rates. Local structural and other factors are driving activity in specific jurisdictions.

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This publication offers tailored solutions for fund managers and investors, allowing a combination of features from different jurisdictions. Notably, thanks to its limited partnership regime, the needs of clients from both common law and civil law jurisdictions can be accommodated.

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On 20 July 2023, the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 (ETDA) received Royal Assent and became law in the UK. From 20 September 2023, the ETDA will allow for the legal recognition of trade documents such as bills of lading and bills of exchange in electronic form. In this briefing, we consider some of the ETDA's key provisions and its likely impact on global trade.

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The provision of custody services for cryptoassets has recently been under heightened scrutiny following high-profile insolvencies of certain crypto service providers. These insolvency proceedings have demonstrated that determining what type of claim clients of custodian wallet providers have in respect of their cryptoassets is crucial.

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To assist businesses to navigate their way through the different anti-corruption regimes, we have produced this Guide which sets out the legislative anti-bribery framework in thirteen major jurisdictions across Asia Pacific and, in Annexures 1 and 2 respectively, we have summarised the provisions of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and UK Bribery Act, which are major pieces of anti-bribery legislation that have extraterritorial reach. For each jurisdiction, we also offer insight and analysis in relation to the enforcement of the relevant legislation.

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Technology impacts on every area of business in every sector. It is integral to the management and operation of a company and its systems, processes and data; delivering products and services; and engaging with customers and creating new business models. The emergence of technologies including blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing have opened up further opportunities. But this increasing reliance on technology and the novel legal questions raised by new technologies can give rise to complex disputes across multiple jurisdictions. In 2022, we saw an increasing number of tech disputes in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region focusing on cryptoassets, data breaches and the use of AI. We expect this trend to continue in 2023.

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Clifford Chance, in co-operation with UK Voluntary Carbon Market Forum and the City of London Corporation, has launched a new report: 'Enabling the Voluntary Carbon Market in the Context of the Paris Agreement'.

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Simon Crown, Monica Sah, Laura Douglas and Meera Ragha of Clifford Chance are the contributors to the UK chapter in the latest Chambers Fintech 2022 Global Practice Guide.

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This year’s publication aims to help you to understand the main regulatory and market trends and the forces for change affecting our world, and seeks to distil the key lessons needed to help you and your business to navigate the constantly shifting landscape we all find ourselves in.

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The European Commission’s ‘Level 1’ financial services legislative pipeline is filling up, with more proposals expected this year. Understanding the likely length of the Level 1 legislative process is important for firms’ engagement with the process and planning for eventual implementation.

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Clifford Chance, the Institute for Human Rights and Business and the CDC Group have jointly authored a white paper which addresses how banks can support a 'Just Transition' through climate-related financing activities, and the challenges and opportunities that this presents given the range of stakeholders to consider and their competing interests.

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In recent years, there has been a global trend towards protectionism and raising of barriers to foreign investments. A number of countries have introduced new or stricter foreign investment regimes, including the EU Screening Regulation, new review procedures in China and the expanding powers of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US. Our guide on Foreign Direct Investment provides a digestible snapshot of the various foreign investment regimes in a number of jurisdictions (including European Union, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Spain, UK, Australia, Canada, China, Japan and the USA) to help you navigate these rules to support you on your future investments.

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The recently proposed EU regulation on artificial intelligence (AI Act) will impose new regulatory requirements on firms across the financial sector when they use, provide, import or distribute computer software for biometric identification, human capital management or credit assessment of individuals. It will also prohibit the deployment of software exploiting subliminal techniques or vulnerabilities due to age or disability and impose transparency obligations on providers and users of other software. Firms’ compliance with the new requirements will be challenging because of the difficulty of determining what software will be treated as an ‘artificial intelligence system’ subject to these requirements and which entities within a financial sector group will be subject to obligations under the AI Act, especially given its extraterritorial application.

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In this article, we explore the benefits and opportunities, as well as the legal, regulatory and practical challenges, of some of the potential technical solutions for the syndicated loan market under consideration.

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Unilateral option clauses are a common feature in many transaction documents. A unilateral option clause grants one party the exclusive right to decide between arbitration or litigation to resolve a dispute. This means a party can choose the forum for their dispute at the time the dispute arises, rather than at the time of negotiating the agreement.

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This Guide provides an overview of the Competition Law regime in Hong Kong.

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Over the course of 2020, we were involved in a number of headline making transactions in the insurance sector that you may be interested in. While these matters encapsulate the changing nature of the insurance market they also point to themes which will continue to develop in 2021. We set out below the 5 big themes we expect to see in the insurance market in 2021 so you can consider how to position your business for what comes next. We would be happy to discuss any of the deals below.

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As a result of COVID-19 and the subsequent market impact, scheduled exit windows for portfolio assets may no longer be viable. As was the case in 2011-13, post the GFC, continuation funds can be a useful tool for GPs looking to extend hold periods for assets, where they are unable to be realised at optimum value in the short term and have potential for future upside.

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This briefing aims to provide some practical suggestions as to the ways in which Australian superannuation funds might realise divestment opportunities and/or secure alternative financing arrangements, to create liquidity or bridge funding issues.

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This briefing aims to provide some practical suggestions as to the ways in which limited partners might realise divestment opportunities and/or secure alternative financing arrangements, to create liquidity or bridge funding issues.

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This document captures key elements of the discussion on Doing Business in Africa held at the Waldorf Astoria in Dubai on November 26, 2019: financing projects, accessing liquidity and finding the right partner in a competitive market place.

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As well as a public health crisis, the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is having significant adverse consequences on many African economies.

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This survey provides information about initial public offerings (IPOs) of equity securities by companies in the health care sector in 2019.

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This paper identifies specific private international law issues with respect to contract law that may arise when trading derivatives in a DLT environment and proposes recommendations on how these issues might be clarified or resolved.

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This fully revised, updated and expanded edition of the industry standard text takes the reader through the complete life cycle of a syndicated loan. Beginning with the opening phase of mandating a lead bank, Syndicated Lending delves through negotiation, documentation, syndication and closing transactions to conclude with the secondary market.

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This Guide provides an overview of financial regulations applicable at the end of 2019 in the twenty largest African jurisdictions by GDP and brings together the collective knowledge and experience of Clifford Chance and its local relationships across the African continent.

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This Guide provides an overview of taking security in Vietnam, outlining the key issues in taking security, the enforcement process, issues relating to specific assets and financing structures and issues for international lenders and foreign entities

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This jargon buster is designed to provide an overview of key legal terms used when doing business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and in its various free zones. It has been limited to general definitions that are of most interest.

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This guide is designed to provide an overview of key considerations for doing business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) outside of the various free zones. It has been limited to a general description of areas that are of most interest.

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This document seeks to examine some of the regulatory considerations arising from the Rupee Bond Guidelines that need to be taken into account in the structuring of a Masala bond offering, as well as certain issues that may arise in bringing a Masala bond to the international debt capital markets successfully.

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This article, written by members of our Trusts team, focuses on some of the prominent changes in approach and consequent effect for trustees in agreeing to amendments, waivers and consents and the changing landscape in which trustees operate in the capital markets.

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This Guide has been produced and coordinated by Clifford Chance LLP. It is designed to provide an overview of key considerations for leveraged finance transactions in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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This guide is designed to provide an overview of key considerations for doing business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia). It has been limited to a general description of areas that are of most interest.

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