News

Representatives from the troika of Cyprus’ international lenders, the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and the European Central Bank, recently visited Cyprus for conducting their 4th post-scheme investigation following the islands recent withdrawal from the economic adjustment programme as agreed with the terms of the bailout.

According to data published in the online edition of OCCRP, in 2013, the Estonian branch of the Danish bank Danske Bank closed the accounts of several companies after the leakage of information that these accounts were used by the Russian Special Services (FSB) to launder large sums of money.

Due to the fact that there is withholding of tax information in these jurisdictions, the European Union has published a "black list" of offshore companies. The list contains states whose efforts in the field of combating money laundering and terrorism do not meet the standards of the European Union.

Malta’s regulators are studying the possibility of regulating cryptocurrencies, early this year at the Centre for European Policy Studies (“CEPS”) Ideas Lab of 23-24th February, 2017 in Brussels.

Earlier this month, China shocked investors everywhere by banning both corporate and personal fund raising using ICOs (initial coin offerings) such as bitcoin, stating that such practices constitute illegal fundraising due to the current lack of regulations and increasing reports of misuse.

In recent years, the rise of the gig economy in Singapore has introduced new methods of working in various economic sectors, from banking, ICT industries, the healthcare infrastructure, to transportation and even online shopping.

Notably, the most popular hotspot is Paphos when is then followed by Famagusta, Limassol, Larnaca and Nicosia. The majority of inquiries were for houses/villas in Limassol at 55%, whereas others were interested in apartments in Nicosia leading with 72%. Limassol leads with the highest average listing price at EUR €329,431 whereas Famagusta has the lowest average asking price of EUR €127,855.

ACRA have recently updated their guidelines therefore bringing it transparently in line with other jurisdictions. Following this, businesses will be offered a copy of their business profile and the amount of information available for public use will increase substantially.

China has agreed to allow imports of rice from the US for the first time. The agreement gives US rice farmers access to the world's main consumer of the grain, with China importing over 5 million tonnes in 2016 alone.

After the Hong Kong government recently abolished tax breaks for electric vehicles, no Tesla vehicles sales were registered in Hong Kong throughout the month of April, reports have shown.