Investor fears for the credit risk of euro zone countries with weaker economies have increased sharply in July. Prices of credit default swaps for Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland have all jumped. In contrast, German and French CDS prices have been relatively steady on views that the euro zone's two biggest economies will hold up better in a tougher climate. Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Irish 10-year bond yields have also widened sharply against Germany in the past month. (Source: ftchinese.com)

The Philippines Department of Trade and Industry and IP had announced a five-point strategy aimed at curbing piracy and counterfeiting. The strategy would entail the support of all branches of government that local government units will enforce IPR in their localities. It will create Special IP Courts in Metro Manila to move the cases of IP violations in the courts, and establish an IP Research and Training Institute to provide specialized training for relevant persons, in addition, further strength IPR. (Source: LawAndTax-News.com)

Proposed changes to China's patent law will require foreign companies making discoveries in China first or risk losing legal protection of their intellectual property. Another proposal involves the adoption of an "absolute novelty" standard that will make it hard to get a Chinese patent for inventions if it has used overseas. Elliot Papa Georgiou, a patent law expert, said the changes "will make it more challenging for foreign companies inventing in China", but "make it easier to challenge rogue Chinese patents". (Source: ftchinese.com)

LVMH found that 90% of the LV and Dior-labeled perfumes, watches and handbags offered on EBay were fakes. A French court ordered that EBay pay almost 40 million euros for Internet sales of counterfeit goods, and ruled EBay must post the ruling on all its Web sites in English and French for 3 weeks and pay to promote it in 3 publications of LVMH's choice. The ruling also prohibits the sale of LVMH perfumes on EBay. EBay will appeal the court ruling, describing the decision as an "anti-competitive overreach." (Source: bloomberg.com)

More western banks rush to the mainland China's growing financial services sector. It can help them to broaden its mainland platform and is also a relatively cheap and unfussy way of accessing the growing market for banking products. Under Chinese rules, trust firms face fewer regulatory obstacles in making equity investments and are allowed to offer a variety of corporate banking services. Although rules were tightened now, trust companies retain to offer services to wealthy individual or institutional customers. (Source: ftchinese.com)

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has launched the country's first wine trust project, expected that alternative investments may prove to be fruitful amid the sluggish global capital market. The product now only targets ICBC's private banking customers and enterprise customers. The unit of the wine trust is measured by the "barrel". Each investor is limited to buying a maximum of two barrels of wine. The period for the investment is 18-month long, with the annualized investment return hovering around 8 percent. (Source: China Daily)

The average rate on cash Child Trust Funds (CTFs) has dropped by 0.21% over the past year. The average maximum rates on cash CTFs are presently 6.29% compared with 6.5% in June 2007. A maximum of £1,200 each year can be saved in cash CTF by parents, family or friends on top of the minimum amount of £250 provided by the Government to start the account. CTFs will remove the burden of choice and make the scheme more attractive to busy parents and for those people who struggle to understand the relatively complex options out. (Source: thisismoney.co.uk)

Chinese companies are calling for a new charities law after earthquake in Sichuan to allow them to set up private foundations. Now, private charitable foundations can only be established in partnership with a government department. Most of the donations were handed over to government-run charities that have been criticized for a lack of transparency about how they spend their funds. Private foundations say that they are often discouraged from funding non-governmental groups that might be involved in sensitive areas. (Source: ftchinese.com)

Fund Management, a $16bn Swiss fund of hedge funds, is suing a Greenwich, Connecticut hedge fund manager over the way it handled its redemption requests, as hedge fund manager' s brace for outflows in a volatile market. The complaint leveled several charges against Stewardship Investment Advisors and its managing director and alleges that Stewardship repeatedly misled Gottex. The allegations include fraud, intentional and negligent misrepresentation, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Stewardship has filed for a dismissal of the case on July 11. (Source: wealth-bulletin.com)

The HK Securities and Futures Commission and Australian Securities and Investments Commission has signed a declaration that allows most funds registered in Australia to offer to retail investors in HK, while making available to Australian investors similar funds authorized in HK. This was the first agreement reached with an overseas securities regulator for HK, and also an important milestone towards international convergence of regulation. (Source: LawAndTax-News.com)

An increase in the numbers of married couples seeking a divorce has become the latest trend attributed to the current credit crunch. Economic prosperity often helps paper over the cracks in relationships. Conversely, tightening belts means less scope for diverting attention away from an unhappy marriage. Financial worries can place a huge strain on marital relationships and cause breakdowns in communication. But the sluggish housing market means some couples have to share the same house after their divorce has gone through the courts, because their jointly owned homes are proving difficult to sell. (Source: walesonline.co.uk)

Fed up with the malicious rumors, Gary Dean decided that the only way to silence his critics was to post the details of his wife's £3.7 million settlement on the internet. Mr. Dean took advice from divorce and libel lawyers and bought the domain name deandivorce.com before posting the details on the web. The settlement is Gary Dean to pay and/or give to his ex-wife: a cash lump sum of £3,719,000; plus £15,000 per child per annum until the age of 17 years or completion of full-time education; plus all private school fees; plus all jeweler, diamonds and watches, Mercedes E500, Audi Convertible 3.0 and two personal number plates. (Source: the Times)

Barbados is keen to expand its tax treaty network in order to cultivate strategic business alliances. It signed a Convention for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with Republic of Seychelles, with respect to taxes on income and capital gains. The negotiation of these agreements is a critical element of a framework for developing substantial trading opportunities, reduction in taxes costs, and reduction of fiscal impediments to cross-border trade and investment. The Agreement will apply to income tax from the first day of January 2009. (Source: LawAndTax-News.com)

A cut in the tax imposed on futures trades has been approved by the Taiwanese Parliament's finance committee. The tax is imposed on futures transactions at between 0.01% and 0.06%, but under the new proposals, the levy could be cut to 0.00125%. The planned tax cut must receive a second and third reading. However, it is not likely to receive an easy ride, as cutting the futures transactions tax to such a degree is expected to deprive the Taiwanese government of a significant chunk of revenue. (Source: Tax-News.com)

The Beijing municipal government announced it would require all individuals or vendors doing online businesses to register with the administration starting Aug. 1 and pay taxes on their transactions. It held websites accountable for checking the business certification of online sellers. Online business websites were required to keep transaction records for at least two years. Any negligence of uncertified businesses would risk fines from 20,000 yuan (2,900USD) to 500,000 yuan. The only exception is for people who not for profit. (Source: Xinhua.net)

Taiwan will relax restrictions on financial investments in mainland China and HK. Securities firms will be allowed to invest up to 20% of their net worth in China. It will open the domestic market to listings of HK exchange-traded funds, and also plans to allow Taiwanese ETFs to list in HK. HK-listed companies, except those that are at least 20%-owned by Chinese investors or based in China, would be able to list shares in Taiwan. The opening will also allow Chinese investors to invest in stocks, indirectly. (Source: atimes.com)

China Development Bank plans to inject 136m pounds into Barclays. Barclays said it will raise 4.5b pounds by issuing 1.58b shares from existing investors in a move to increase its capital ratio and win new business in Asia. Temasek will invest 200 million pounds. The investment will help CDB keep its stake as one of the biggest shareholders of Barclays at 3.1%. The shares will be sold at 282 pence per share. The shares will be made available to existing shareholders. (Source: China Daily)

India and Myanmar will sign an investment pact on wider border trade as a sign of expanding ties between New Delhi and military rulers of the secretive state. The agreement will aim at "encouraging flow of funds between the two countries." In April, the two sides signed an accord under which New Delhi would invest 130m dollars in Myanmar's Sittwe port on the Bay of Bengal. Bilateral trade between India and Myanmar totaled 590 million dollars in 2005-2006. (Source: atimes.com)

The 8th Session of the Seychelles-Mauritius Commission on Bilateral Cooperation ended in July with both Governments agreeing to strengthen cooperation and bilateral relations thus develop synergy to better deal with regional and global challenges, and to reap the benefits of regionalization and globalization. They will work together in regional cooperation; COMESA fund; regional multidisciplinary centre of excellence; and cooperation in the fisheries sector. (Source: Tax-News.com)

China National Petroleum Corp, China Petrochemical Corp, China National Offshore Oil Corp and Sinochem Corp are now qualified to participate in Iraq's coming licensing round for oil and gas contracts. Only qualified firms can bid for tenders to develop Iraq's oil reserves. Although venture exists, the qualification will benefit Chinese companies as oil resources in Iraq are ill developed because of sanctions and war. Iraq's oil reserve is the world's third largest. But it needs billions of dollars in investment to overhaul its oil industry infrastructure and increase oil and gas output. (Source: chinadaily.net)

Macao's foreign exchange reserves were estimated to be 14.48b USD at the end of May. The reserves dropped by 0.2% from the revised value of 14.54b dollars, but increased by 34.4%, when compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, Macao's foreign exchange reserves represented 29 times the currency in circulation. The trade-weighted effective exchange rate index for the pataca rose by 0.26 point month-to-month or fell 4.78 points year-on-year to 87.24 in May this year also. (Source: Xinhua.com)

Union pay, the major interbank network in China, will lift the current cap of 5,000 RMB per day for overseas transactions to 10,000 RMB to benefit the increasing number of debit card holders. That means Union pay debit card holders can withdraw up to 10,000 RMB (US$1,458) a day at ATMs outside China. Union pay works with the Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, and the Agricultural Bank of China. (Source: xinhua.net)

Brazil is aiming to make China its biggest trade partner, and it wants to triple its China exports to 30b USD in 2010. China is now Brazil's third biggest trade partner, while the latter is China's top trade partner in Latin America. Trade volume between the two countries hit a record 29.7b USD last year, 46.4 percent up year on year. Brazil has invested 250m USD in China while Chinese enterprises have invested 150m USD in Brazil. (Source: Xinhua.net)

Investors will have to declare stakes in companies when they reach 3%, whether they are in actual shares, contracts for difference (CfDs) or a mix of both. CfDs are widely used by some traders, because it has helped them hide stake building in companies. Today's ruling follows eight months of consultation with market participants and represents something of a compromise by the regulator. The new rules will start next February. (Source: thisismoney.co.uk)

Al Khaliji, the Doha-based regional bank, has received a license to establish its office in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). DIFC will be the base for Al Khaliji services LTD, the company's new subsidiary that will support its UAE operations. The office will handle human resources, marketing, consulting, operations, operational risk management and IT banking integration functions. The new office forms part of Al Khaliji's strategy to help drive and manage the operational processes associated with its planned regional expansion. (Source: Tax-News.com)

【Chief Editors: Cynthia Ding 】

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