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For background, see December 2007 international briefing

In the spring of 2007, Canada's parliament amended several federal insolvency statutes so as to transfer the definition of the class of protected contracts known as eligible financial contracts (EFCs) from the federal insolvency statutes themselves to their respective associated regulations. A wide range of products, including margin loans, is now covered. On November 15, the treasury board approved the finalised regulations to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, the Winding-up and Restructuring Act, the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, and the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation Act. The changes were effective from November 17 2007. The long-awaited EFC definition includes the following types of agreement:

Governmental securities (G-securities) play a central role in the Albanian market because they represent Albanian governmental debt. At the same time G-securities are the only type of securities publicly marketed in Albania. In the emerging Albanian securities market, where the only existing stock exchange – the Tirana Stock Exchange (TSE) – is inoperative, and where private instruments are not publicly traded, the trading of G-securities is an example of the functioning of securities public trading. In the secondary G-securities market the Albanian regulator has produced other options to stock exchange trading. It has also liberalised access to the primary market of G-securities to allow individual investors to invest directly.

Codes of conduct are all the rage. Last year the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association set up a voluntary code for private equity firms, in the face of public pressure. In January the Hedge Fund Working Group set up a board to monitor UK funds, as a reaction to the G7 summit the previous year. Now bankers are talking about voluntary regulation of structured investment vehicles. And the panic over sovereign wealth funds has led to, you guessed it, a proposal for a code of conduct.

Asia awards

Denton Wilde Sapte has formed an association with St Petersburg based firm Duvernoix Legal.

Portuguese firm Sérvulo has hired Miguel Gorjão-Henriques to head its European and competition practice.

On January 1 2008 Cyprus became the fourteenth member of the Eurozone, marking the culmination of an application, planning and transition process of several years. Apart from some minor local teething troubles in the first few days the transition appears to have gone smoothly. The Cyprus pound will continue to be accepted as legal tender until the end of January, following which the former currency will have to be exchanged at banks.

The Austrian Ministry of Finance has recently introduced a draft bill on the amendment of certain provisions of the Austrian Investment Funds Act (Investmentfondsgesetz, InvFG). The amendment aims to:

Although Canada has set out its views on foreign state buyers, its guidelines offer insufficient guidance