The Personal Properties Securities Act 2009 (PPSA) is due to come into effect in Australia in 2011. The PPSA will create a national system for the registration of security interests over personal property recorded via the personal property securities register (PPSR). Read more.

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) recently released two final tax determinations and two draft determinations that impact both resident and non-resident investors in Australian Private Equity investments and their investors. Read more.

Australia's Board of Taxation has issued a discussion paper on the taxation treatment of Islamic financial products in Australia. Recognising the importance of Australians having access to Islamic financial products, the Australian government had asked the Board to identify impediments in the Australian tax laws, at both State and Commonwealth levels, which might currently prevent or discourage access. Read more.

Click here for the full text of this month's Australia updates.

On 9 November 2010, the German government published the draft Act to strengthen investor protection and to improve the operation of capital markets (Gesetz zur Stärkung des Anlegerschutzes und Verbesserung der Funktionsfähigkeit des Kapitalmarktes (AnlsFuG-E) – the draft Act). Read more.

The Berlin district court (Landgericht) has ruled that payments from the investor protection funds set up by German banks to extend investor protection in addition to the statutory minimum protection are at the sole discretion of the funds and are not judicially enforceable (decision dated 15 June 2010 – 10 O 360/09). Read more.

Click here for the full text of this month's Germany updates.

The Round-Table Conference for Promotion of Investment into Japan organised by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) published its report regarding the Promotion Program for Investment into Japan (the PPIJ) on 29 November 2010. The purpose of the PPIJ is to assure Japan's sustained growth to match the rapid growth of developing countries mainly in Asia. Read more.

On 22 October 2010, Japan's Financial Services Agency (the JFSA) published draft amendments to regulations made under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA). Read more.

Click here for the full text of this month's Japan updates.

On 12 November 2010, the Board of Directors of the Central Bank approved "Guidelines for a Unified State Monetary Policy for 2011-2013". The Guidelines were published in the Central Bank Herald on 9 December 2010 and provide an overview of economic development in the Russian Federation in 2010 and plans for economic development in 2011. Read more.

On 10 December 2010, the State Duma adopted in the first reading Draft Law No. 455931-5 "On the National Payment System." The Draft Law seeks to establish a comprehensive legal framework for the creation of a national payment system in Russia. Read more.

Click here for the full text of this month's Russian Federation updates.

According to the FSA's markets regulatory agenda, a specific type of automated trading known as high frequency trading (HFT) was estimated to account for between a third and a half of equity trading volume within the EU.Following the so called "flash crash" in the US in May this year, the regulatory debate regarding automated trading and in particular HFT has gained momentum. This article examines HFT in more detail. Read more.

The High Court judgment of Mr Justice Briggs was issued on 10 December 2010 in relation to the Nortel and Lehman administrators' applications for directions. They had asked how to deal with the potential obligations to be imposed by the Pensions Regulator on various companies within the groups to contribute to the pension schemes of their associated companies under the moral hazard provisions of the Pensions Act 2004. Read more.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published its latest guidance which covers the use of the six available statutory cessation mechanisms for reducing or avoiding employer debts in multi-employer defined benefit schemes. The guidance applies to employers which cease to participate in multi-employer DB Schemes on and from 6 April 2010. Read more.

With effect from 1 December 2009, the definition of what constitutes an "offshore fund" for UK tax purposes was amended and new regulations were made introducing a "reporting fund" regime, which replaced the old "distributing fund" regime. This new definition no longer includes the reference to the realisation of an asset within seven years (which was key to the definition of distributing fund), and as a result, a number of "limited life" funds may now fall within the definition of an offshore fund for investors who acquire an interest in the fund on or after 1 December 2009. Read more.

Click here for the full text of this month's United Kingdom updates.

Effective from 21 July 2011, the heavily relied upon "private adviser" exemption has been revoked. What will be left is a new narrowly crafted "foreign private adviser" exemption and two quasi-exemptions giving rise to two new categories of so called "exempt reporting advisers". Read more.