PublicationsQualified Foreign Investors: A New Investment Route into India (via Singapore)
24 Oct 2012
Although India still maintains exchange controls, specific routes are available for foreign direct and portfolio investments. Institutional investors such as foreign institutional investors (FII) and foreign venture capital investors (FVCI) can make portfolio investments. In a bid to open up the Indian capital markets to foreign investors, the government of India has introduced the qualified foreign investor (QFI) route. This permits even individual foreign investors to invest small amounts in Indian listed securities or mutual fund units through a simple process. While the route has not taken off yet, Singapore is likely to be a key country from where money is pooled and invested in India. With Singapore’s historic connections to India, plenty of India-focused fund managers and tax advantage due to a favourable tax treaty, investment flows are likely to substantially increase in both directions. The session will explore the positives and challenges of investment into India through the various routes with particular emphasis on QFI.
Speaker : Mr Sandeep Parekh, Founder, Finsec Law Advisors
Chairperson : Assistant Professor Varottil Umakanth, National University of Singapore
No. of Participants : 21
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Brazilian Taxation of Inbound and Outbound Investments and Trade with Singapore: Challenges and Perspectives
17 Sept 2012
The lecture will build on an initial presentation of Brazil’s core international tax policy and rules applicable to inbound and outbound and outbound investments and trade. Within such framework, the challenges and tax planning perspectives of bilateral cross-border investments and trade between Brazil and Singapore, as well as with other Asian countries, will be discussed. Among other relevant issues, such discussion will take into account the Brazilian tax treaty network and domestic rules regarding double taxation relief, CFCs, transfer pricing, thin capitalization, tax incentives for nonresident investors and withholding taxes.
Speaker : Associate Professor Flavio Rubinstein
Chairperson : Associate Professor Stephen Phua, National University of Singapore
No. of Participants : 25
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Competition Law in Practice: Mergers, Joint Ventures and International Corporate Transactions
28 Feb 2012
This seminar will examine the merger control process from the multi-jurisdictional perspective of a competition law practitioner in an international law firm. It will explore impact of the competition law framework on M&A deals with a focus, in particular on how the substantive and procedural laws that comprise the merger control regime affect the ways in which such international transactions are managed by their legal advisors.
Speaker : Mr Marc Waha
Chairperson : Associate Professor Burton Ong Tze-En, National University of Singapore
No. of Participants : 35
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Credit Derivatives and Credit Default Swap
3 Feb 2012
Credit default swap (CDS) is a contract by which a lender protects against the risk of default by paying premiums to a third party who agrees to make the lender whole in the event of default by the underlying borrower. The lender buying credit protection looks much like an insured, and the party selling credit protection looks much like an insurer. According to the Korean Commercial Act, CDS looks like a guarantee insurance whereby one, for a consideration, agrees to indemnify another against losses arising from the want of integrity or fidelity of employees and persons holding position of trust, or embezzlements by them, or against the insolvency of debtors, losses in trade, losses by non-payment of notes or against breaches of contract. There are similar arguments in the US that a credit default swap is an insurance contract, but the industry has been rather careful not to call it as such - if it were insurance, it would be regulated, or that credit derivatives should be regulated as insurance under the auspices of the state's insurance department. This seminar looks into the concept and characteristics of credit derivatives, including CDS, and contrast it with insurance from the viewpoint of risk-sharing or transfer. And this article introduces the arguments of regulating credit derivatives as insurance, and how far the Insurance Business Act can cover credit derivatives.
Speaker : Professor Gyung-Young Jung, Seung Kyun Kwan University
Chairperson : Prof essor In Hyeon Kim, Korea University School of Law
Banking Supervision – Korean Perspectives
In the recent past, many banks in Korea have expanded the size of their loans to the public as well as their project financing, which are all related to real estate. However, due to the declining financial value of real estate, banks now carry more non-performing loans than ever before. The supervisory authority now perceives that there are pressing problems within the current system. As more changes are expected in the financial market, closer bank supervision will take place. This seminar examines the problems at hand, and the tasks in the near future.
Speaker : Dr. Dong-Jun Choi, KB Real Estate Trust
Chairperson : Assoc Prof Lan Luh Luh, National University of Singapore
No. of Participants : 36
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The Derivatives Industry and Its Financial Oversight
17 Jan 2012
This seminar examines a decentralized risk management strategy for identifying and defusing future bubble markets. It suggests how the government can enlist private "gatekeeper guarantors" to provide integrated insurance and monitoring roles to complement the government’s management of systemic risks. The key to this proposal is the enactment of a federal mandate that systemically significant financial entities (or participants in systemically significant financial sectors) secure private guarantees to cover a set percentage of their potential liabilities (above a loss threshold). Gatekeeper guarantors would act as "circuit breakers" of systemic risk by serving as self-interested private monitors of risk taking and tying clients’ coverage to ongoing constraints on risk taking. Gatekeeper guarantors would also serve as "bailout buffers" by providing financial backing in the event of defaults and thereby mitigate the government’s potential liability exposure. This seminar surveys the potential impact of gatekeeper guarantors by showing how mandating (re)insurance coverage for over-the-counter derivatives’ liability could address the shortcomings of derivatives’ oversight and regulation.
Speaker : Professor Jeffrey Manns, George Washington University Law School
Chair : Assoc Prof Lan Luh Luh, National University of Singapore
No. of Participants : 65
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