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There has been much publicity lately around recent accounting developments. David Barnes and Simon Stephens of Deloitte look at IFRS, US and UK GAAP, and progress on convergence

With structured finance expanding to more non-US markets, Patrick Tadie, Paul Wilden, Jocelyn M Lynch and Newsville Foster of The Bank of New York explain the challenges and the role trustees play in managing the risks

Investors with a high risk-return preference may wish to take note. Uncertainty about the future regulatory regime for investment funds (IFs) has led to a big drop in trading of shares owned by IFs on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange (SASE). A new draft Law on Companies for Managing Funds and on Funds in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) has been in parliamentary procedure for over a year.

As of May 20 2006, the Austrian Takeover Amendment Act took effect, implementing the EU Takeover Directive and substantially changing Austrian takeover law, in particular as to mandatory offer requirements. As part of the reform, a new Minority Shareholders Squeeze Out Act has been implemented, allowing a shareholder who owns directly or indirectly 90% or more of the stated capital of the target a squeeze out of the minority. The main changes to the Takeover Act (TA) include:

The Bank of Albania (BoA) formulates, adopts and implements the foreign exchange policy of Albania and maintains a supervisory role in foreign exchange activities in accordance with Law 8269 of December 23 1997 (On the Bank of Albania), Law 8365 July 2 1998 (On banks in the Republic of Albania) and the Regulation on Foreign Exchange Activities 101 of December 10 2003 (FX Regulation).

The way is now open for foreign investors to take over Chinese companies. The question is how the authorities will react to a high-profile deal, say David Boitout and Raphael Chantelot

New rules regulating conflicts of interest and the duties of confidentiality and disclosure entered into force on April 25 2006. The rules form part of the Solicitors Practice Rules 1990 as Rules 16D and 16E, replacing Chapters 15 and 16 of the Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors.

Malta implemented the Ucits III regime immediately upon accession to the European Union on May 1 2004. After a slow start, there is an increasing interest from fund managers to choose Malta as the domicile for their Ucits-compliant funds. In line with the current interpretation of the Ucits Directive, the preferred methodology entails the utilization of self-managed funds and delegation arrangements. Self-managed funds formed as corporate entities (usually a SICAV) are managed by the board of directors, which can in turn delegate a number of management functions to an external management company which is authorised in any EU Member State and recognised in Malta.

Law 85/2006 regarding insolvency procedures, published in the Official Gazette 359 on April 20 2006, will enter into force on July 21 2006 and has replaced in full the former bankruptcy law, enacted in 1995.

In the interest of protecting investors, the Securities and Exchange Law (SEL) requires that information material to an investment decision be disclosed to the public. For example, in general, when companies offer or issue securities of more than ¥100 million (approximately $869,000), a securities registration statement (SRS) is required to be filed to the Local Finance Bureau (LFB) and made available for public inspection. Also, listed companies must disclose certain corporate information about their company in a report filed with the LFB on a semi-annual basis (annual securities report and semi-annual securities report). Currently, these disclosure documents are required to be filed and accessed online.