Client Alert

The EU Cybersecurity Directive, known as the "NIS Directive" was published on 19 July 2016 in the Official Journal of the European Union. The NIS Directive entered into force on 8 August 2016 and the Member States will have to transpose the Directive into their national laws by 9 May 2018....

Since 1985, the EU has sought to mobilize capital in Europe and encourage investment in all Member States by promoting cross border distribution of funds. To this end, certain key pieces of legislation were adopted starting with the Council Directive 85/611/EEC of 20 December 1985 on the coordination of laws, regulations and administrative provisions relating to undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) and ending with the most recent Directive 2011/61/EU of 8 June 2011 on Alternative Investment Fund Managers....

On 12 August 2016 the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a Consultation Paper on draft regulatory technical standards on strong customer authentication and common and secure communication under the revised Payment Services Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (PSD2)....

The new Merger Clearance Regulation that entered into force on 19 August 2016, can be considered as another step towards harmonizing Ukrainian legislation with EU law. The Regulation, though not yet ideal, contains a number of positive developments that we expect significantly to simplify, shorten and make the process of gathering required information by notifying parties as well as the merger filing process itself more cost-efficient....

The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) released the results of the banking system overview, which was initiated earlier this year. Pursuant to the report of the national regulator on the outcome of the asset quality review (AQR) and the stress tests, that was announced recently (Report), the domestic banking sector successfully passed this, first-of-its-kind, system–wide assessment. The tests in Bulgaria were extended throughout all 22 locally licensed banks, with the exception of the 6 branches of foreign banks operating in the country. As a result, the domestic exercise had a broader scope than its Eurozone counterpart, which only covered the banking institutions of systematic importance....

The European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA”) has published its second set of advice (the “Advice”) on the possible extension of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (“AIFMD”) passport to non-EU alternative investment funds managers (“AIFMs”) and non-EU alternative investment funds (“AIFs”)....

As of 1 July 2016, nearly all contracts concluded with the Czech State must be published in the Register of Contracts (the "Register"). This obligation was introduced by the new Czech Contract Register Act (1) (the "Act"). This article briefly summarizes the core scope of the Act and its application....

On 27 July 2016, the President of the Czech Republic signed a new Consumer Credit Act (the "CCA") that brings substantial changes to the provision of consumer (and mortgage) credit (the "credit"). The new legislation will affect, among others, also traders, acting as credit intermediaries, who provide consumers with credit for purchasing their goods or services. Please find below a brief summary of selected essential changes introduced by the new CCA. The novelties primarily concern credit providers, credit parameters and the protection of consumers....

The Ministry of Public Finances and Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development issued order no. 1155/868/2016 establishing those agricultural products and services for which a reduced V.A.T. rate now applies ("Order 1155/868")....

On 1 July 2016 an Act amending and supplementing the Act for Economic and Financial Relations with Companies Registered in Jurisdictions with Preferential Tax Regime, their Related Parties and Beneficial Owners (the "Act") entered into force in Bulgaria....

On 20 July 2016, the Turkish government announced a state of emergency for the entire country in response to the failed military coup which took place on 15 July 2016. The state of emergency is scheduled for a period of three months, starting from 21 July 2016. The decision of the Turkish government on the announcement of the state of emergency has been published in the Turkish Official Gazette on 21 July 2016 and subsequently approved by the Turkish Parliament....

Fraud schemes such as "Fake President Fraud", "CEO/CFO FRAUD" or "CEO Email Scam" are an increasing phenomenon in the CEE Region. Based on a rather simple but highly effective scenario perpetrators target companies and – either by telephone or e-mail – succeed in convincing the companies' officers to make money transfers to foreign bank accounts....