Reform of Banking Laws and Regulations in Iran

The law reform process entails government policies and plans for the liberalization, privatization and deregulations of the economy including the banking and money markets. The International financial institutions (IFIs), International Development Agencies (IDAs) and the International Financial Architecture have pioneered law reform initiatives based on the rule of law practice and good governance. The dominant theory advocated by Perry-kessaris postulates that a sound legal system is attractive for foreign direct investment (FDI). The bilateral investment treaties (BITs) contain international law standards which can be used as a model for reforming laws and institutions in the host state including prudential regulation of banking and finance. Iran – a resource-rich country has signed many BITs with capital-exporting countries indicating its willingness to enforce the rule of law on the international level.

Securities and Capital Markets Regulation in South Africa

An effective securities and capital markets industry has existed in South Africa for over 120 years. The regulatory authorities have been alive to globally competitive pressures for inward investment and have endeavoured to implement a conducive environment therefore in compliance with international standards. As recently as 2015, South Africa was considered the best regulator of securities in the world. The effects of the global financial crisis (GFC) were keenly observed. The fall out from the GFC contained lessons for all markets, but not to the same extent. Commentators may therefore regard aspects of the South African reform agenda as replicative of initiatives in other jurisdictions and, consequently, uncritical in parts. In light of the fall to forty sixth place in the world in securities regulation ranking and some uncertainty in respect of the extent and shape of the reform process, this opus reviews activities in South Africa along the busy securities and capital markets value chain, and considers the continuing and emerging regulatory and supervisory framework.

Over-the-Counter Derivatives Regulation in Hong Kong and Singapore

In this article, Dr Christopher Chen examines and compares the regulation of over-the-counter derivatives in Hong Kong and Singapore, the two largest international financial centres in Asia Pacific. Dr Chen analyses current or proposed regulations on trade reporting, centralised clearing and mandatory exchange trading mandates regarding OTC derivatives against the backdrop of reforms of international financial regulatory structure after the global financial crisis. The article also relates the reforms in Asia to development in major Western markets such as the U.S., U.K. or European Union. Apart from technical comparison and dissecting of content of rules from different angles, this article also examines the rationale behind those reforms and policy concerns behind Asian adoption of the regulatory mandates prescribed by G20 as well as potential policy concerns (such as competition and extraterritoriality) in a market that is dominated by Western banks.

A Critical Appraisal of Initial Coin Offerings

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) emerged in 2017 as a revolutionary form of raising capital by technology companies and investment vehicles. ICOs enable start-up companies to issue blockchain-based assets (‘digital tokens’) to the public in return for a payment in cryptocurrencies or fiat money. The fundraising objective is to finance technology projects carried out by the ‘ICO issuer’. The ICO funding model represents a financial revolution as it provides additional pools of liquidity for capital formation purposes and a powerful tool for incentivizing communities through network effects. More importantly, the latent value of ICOs lies in the usage of the raised funds to develop cutting-edge distributed ledger technologies (DLTs). The advent of ICOs mushrooming worldwide promises to democratize financing, yet the commonly unregulated space in which ICOs operate, opens up a Pandora’s Box of investment and legal risks. The present paper argues that regulation needs to be goal-orientated and for that purpose, it is crucial to identify the nature of the ICO funding model, the cryptoeconomics behind it and the legal nature of digital tokens. With ICOs, academia, economists and regulators are at ground zero. Practitioners’ first instinct is to apply the knowledge of capital markets, but ICOs are a fundamentally new model of raising funds that have spawned different dynamics from ‘traditional’ capital markets. If we can establish how to approach ICOs within their own right, then choosing the correct regulatory stance will become a matter of identifying how ICOs and markets interact and how the investment risks can be allocated. Keeping with the spirit of ICOs as a financial innovation, the paper proposes self-regulation by ICO issuers to be a suitable regulatory approach, while limiting the role of regulators to policing the secondary market of crypto-intermediaries. For the purpose of fully rationalizing this position, the paper outlines the process of carrying out an ICO, relevant benefits and risks to the model, the current state of ICO regulation, digital token characterization and merits of different regulatory approaches.

What Is Market Manipulation?

The Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) entered into force in 2016 within the European Union, which introduced a fully harmonized ban on market manipulation. Even though the regulation is quite detailed, the terms used to define market manipulation are relatively vague and open-ended.In What Is Market Manipulation? Dr. Andri Fannar Bergþórsson offers unique insight to and an interpretation of the concept of market manipulation, which includes an analysis of case law from the Nordic countries. The aim of the book is to clarify the concept as described in MAR and to provide readers some guidelines to distinguish between lawful behaviour and market manipulation (the unlawful behaviour). Dr. Andri Fannar convincingly argues that misinformation is an essential element of all forms of market manipulation.

Ukrainian Banking Regulation: Its Challenges and Transition towards European Standards

For the last years, Ukraine and particulalry its financial sector were seeking to gradually apply and comply with EU standards. Latest with the signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in 2014 the transition towards EU standards has a formal basis. Since then, Ukraine – with strong support from the EU – is in the process of implementing legislative and regulatory measures in order to comply with this Agreement. Against this background, this contribution wants to shed some light into Ukraine’s efforts as well as to explain some of the complexities of this process by providing an in-depth background of the current Ukrainian banking regulation, its economics and the challenges of complying with new EU standards.