On Dec 16, 2016, BOC Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. made history as the issuer of the first financial bond ever offered by a Chinese consumer finance company on the national interbank bond market. Zhong Lun Law Firm serves as the legal advisor for the project, providing the issuer with legal services throughout the bond issue process.

On January 5, 2017, China CITIC Bank Corporation Ltd. ("CITIC") and Fujian Baidu Borui Internet Technology Co., Ltd. ("Baidu") received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission ("CBRC") for the establishment of China CITIC Baixin Bank Corporation Ltd. ("Baixin Bank") in Beijing. As of now, Baixin Bank represents the first PRC direct bank to be established in the form of an independent legal entity.Han Kun's legal services mainly included acting for Baidu in studying the feasibility of direct banking, drafting and revising the promoters' agreement and the articles of association, and preparing and revising the application materials to establish Baixin Bank.

The agreement-based transfer of 6 million A shares in Shang Gong Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shang Gong") proposed by its controlling shareholder, managed by AllBright Law Offices, has been approved by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council, and was granted with the Transfer Confirmation Certificate issued by China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation Limited on Dec 29, 2016. It is the first market-oriented reform of state-owned listed companies in Shanghai conducted through the "mixed ownership reform" program.

Change is rarely easy. As a leader of your legal department, you must demonstrate the importance and priority of change. How to achieve this, balanced against short-term goals?

A little more than a year since it opened an office in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, PRC firm Haiwen & Partners is preparing to set up a branch across the boundary, in Hong Kong.

Nominations are now open for the SSQ Thomson Reuters ALB China Law Awards 2017. Now on its 14th year, the event will be held in Beijing on Thursday, April 20, 2017.

We are now accepting submissions for 2017 ALB Top 10 M&A Lawyers in China.

Despite the current crisis plaguing King & Wood Mallesons’ European arm, its APAC operations remain unaffected, with business carrying on as usual, according to a Hong Kong-based spokesperson for the firm.

Linklaters, Canadian law firm McCarthy Tétrault and China’s Jun He have advised the National Bank of Canada (NBC) on its issuance of a $517.7 million panda bond.

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) has launched its International Arbitration Centre (IAC), headed by John Beechey, former president of International Chamber of Commerce’s Court of Arbitration.