On 22 May 2014 DLA Piper held an "International Banking and Finance Update" seminar. The training was led by Dr. Martin Navias, Of Counsel, an English qualified lawyer from the London office of DLA Piper.

The seminar guided participants through recent developments in international practices related to banking and finance agreements. This included an update on FATCA, recent changes to the LMA provisions related to agency/security trustee protections, an introduction to unitranche financing as well as other topics. In addition, specific attention was paid to managing of political risk in investment agreements. Oleksandr Kurdydyk, Partner and Head of Finance & Projects in Ukraine, contributed to the seminar commenting about application of the above mentioned updates and topics to Ukraine.

The seminar attracted the attention of major Ukrainian banks and companies. As Pavlo Kazymirov, Country Counsel of PJSC Citibank, noted, "I was delighted to attend this seminar organized by DLA Piper, which I find very useful and interesting. Martin Navias has delivered a very good presentation on the most trending changes in LMA loan documentation and brought our attention to some very interesting issues. I am already looking forward to the next event like this".

On being asked about the importance of the topic of the seminar for Ukrainian clients, Martin Navias replied: "It is important for our clients across Europe to be conversant with some of the key global legal financial topics that are presently receiving attention. It is our hope that such knowledge should help them to better integrate and position their businesses within the broader international economy".

While Oleksandr Kurdydyk added: "More and more Ukrainian companies play at the international level and borrow funds in the foreign markets. We were happy to share our extensive experience in Ukraine, as well as access to DLA Piper's global resources, at the event".

Seminar materials are available upon request: olena.lazareva@dlapiper.com 

The guests were also welcomed by Michael Datsenko, Director of Information & Members Programs, U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) which was the partner of the seminar.