Counsel will be hoping to catch their breath during 2005 after
the wave of changes that have overwhelmed them during the past two
years. And yet coming to terms with new rules in the US and
implementation of Europe's Financial Services Action Plan will
prove more time consuming than even the consultations that preceded
them. In Asia, the enthusiasm of increasingly well funded market
watchdogs to follow the lead set elsewhere will force underwriters
and issuers to rethink issues such as corporate governance,
disclosure and due diligence.
When IFLR talked to lawyers and in-house counsel to compose the
list of trends that follows, the theme of overregulation arose time
and again. More than anything else, the pace of change seems to irk
those required to alter their businesses to accommodate it. Right
now, for example, banks in Europe face the task of building
computer systems to cope with the reporting of trades that will be
required...