White & Case has advised PKO Bank Hipoteczny on its PLN 500 million issuance of mortgage-covered bonds due July 4, 2028, with Erste Group and PKO Bank Polski acting as joint bookrunners.

CMS has advised Dutch Good Growth Fund on obtaining the necessary regulatory approval for its acquisition of a significant shareholding in the joint-stock company Joint Stock Bank Lviv. CMS has also advised Bank Lviv on certain transactional documents in the acquisition.

Harrisons has advised EBRD on three financing facilities with Banca Intesa Beograd totaling EUR 72 million.

Filip & Company has advised Digi Group’s Spanish subsidiaries on a national roaming contract and a network and spectrum sharing contract with Telefonica Moviles Espana.

Zepos & Yannopoulos has advised Ayvens Group, Leaseplan, and ALD on the merger of the Greek subsidiaries effected through the absorption of ALD Automotive by Leaseplan Hellas.

In recent months, Bulgaria has undergone significant changes to its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) legislation intending to achieve the long-overdue complete transposition of the EU 2018/843 Directive into national law and meeting the higher standards set forth in the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) recommendations on Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), especially following the country’s inclusion in FATF’s so-called “grey list” of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.  Naturally, these changes give rise to a number of new obligations for businesses to comply with. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the most significant changes.