Top 10 Finance and Banking Headlines from UK During the earlier part of the financial crisis the European Commission approved State aid for troubled banks (eg Northern Rock) under “Article 87(3)(c) EC Treaty and the Rescue and Restructuring Guidelines”. Last week the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill completed its passage through the House of Commons. Hedge funds that have billions of dollars of assets tied up in the failed bank, Lehman Brothers International Europe (LBIE), received a setback last month when a judge ruled a planned scheme to distribute the assets could not be sanctioned by the court. The Planning Act 2008 introduces a new regime for authorising sixteen types of nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP). This entry focuses on one of these – electricity generation. There has been much discussion recently centered around the proposals of the European Commission for a Directive on Alternative Investment Fund Managers. The FSA accepts that PPI has an important role in protecting consumers’ repayments, particularly in the current economic climate. The recent selection of Rio de Janeiro as host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games just underlines what many have being saying for some time now: that Brazil has truly arrived as a power on the international stage. Welcome to the September 2009 edition of Banking and Capital Markets Insight, which focuses on technical issues currently coming out of the banking, capital markets, securities and fund management arenas. Historically, offshore funds have been used as investment vehicles to minimise the impact of UK tax by keeping income profits offshore. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have issued a joint press release in which they set out their plans to explore common approaches to reporting and other regulatory requirements for key market participants such as hedge funds and their advisers. | 
