The Bank of Canada has proposed a new facility to help provide liquidity to the market for private sector securities. The new facility will replace the existing facility and will, for the first time, include eligible corporate bonds. Read more.

The Canadian Government has launched a consultation on how to implement the Canadian Secured Credit Facility, proposed in its January budget. In particular, the Government is seeking views on how to use the facility to help restart the ABS market in Canada, as well as on pricing and fund allocation. Read more.

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

PLC Global Finance has published a Q&A guide on the causes, effects and regulatory impact of the financial crisis in China, contributed by Lovells LLP.

This article is part of our new series of Country Q&A Guides to the Financial Crisis, available on the PLC Global Finance site.

As one of the anti-crisis measures, mandatory reserve amounts that credit organisations must hold were reduced. This reduction will be effective until May 2009, after which the amounts that must be held will rise incrementally. Read more.

Further steps towards improving the legal framework for reorganising Russian credit organisations are taken as the Russian Government amends certain banking laws and the Central Bank issues directives simplifying the procedures for reorganising credit organisations by merger and accession. Read more.

The Central Bank has issued directives relating to the reserves that banks must hold against losses on loans and to evaluating the credit risk for loans. Among other things, the directives amend the rules and criteria that credit organisations must apply when defining a loan's quality category for the purposes of calculating the required reserve amounts. Read more.

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

PLC Global Finance has published a Q&A guide on the causes, effects and regulatory impact of the financial crisis in the Russian Federation, contributed by White & Case LLP.

This article is part of our new series of Country Q&A Guides to the Financial Crisis, available on the PLC Global Finance site.

EU rules require that any state aid given to a business must be notified to, and cleared by, the Commission, failing which it must be repaid. As governments across the EU have been forced to provide support to their financial institutions struggling under the financial crisis, the EU has adopted certain measures to relax these state aid rules. The key reforms are summarised here. Read more.

The credit crisis has led to strong criticism of remuneration practices in the financial services sector and in the wider economy. There are a number of actions companies can take to address this issue. Read more.

In February 2009, CEBS published for comment draft guidelines on passport notifications. These aim to provide a framework for EEA regulators in relation to new notifications sent under the BCD in light of the implementation of MiFID, as well as introducing adjustments to the earlier protocol adopted by CESR to address differences between MiFID and the BCD. Read more.

Subscription shares, a relatively new variant of warrants, provide a geared exposure to a company's capital growth. In recent month's a number of investment trusts have started issuing subscription shares, and many others are expected to follow suit. Read more.

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

The new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 expands restrictions on executive compensation that apply to entities participating in the TARP. This article summarise the key provisions of the Act. Read more.

The current economic crisis has brought with it a renewed scrutiny of the hedge fund industry, causing governments around the world to call for stricter oversight of these lightly regulated investment funds. This article examines some of the current initiatives being put forward for investment fund regulation. Read more.

Many companies rely on the OTC derivatives market to hedge their exposure to various risks. However, such companies are increasingly subject to the risk of counterparty default. To reduce this exposure, there are a number of actions that companies should take, particularly with regard to reviewing their existing collateral documents and arrangements. Read more.

The US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware held in its SemCrude LLP decision that the Bankruptcy Code prohibits a triangular set-off of debts in bankruptcy in the absence of mutuality. If followed by other courts, the case could have implications for companies that attempt to manage their counterparty risk exposure to a corporate group through contractual provisions allowing them to offset amounts owed to one member of a group against amounts owed to them from that member's affiliates. Read more.

Advantageous tax treatment allowed for income arising from the repurchase or exchange of business debt at a discount in 2009 or 2010 under new stimulus legislation. Read more.

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