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Under the WTO concessions, notional majority ownership is possible only in the insurance industry. In fund management, securities and commercial banking, foreign strategic investors in an onshore financial services company need to think harder about the risks and rewards of a notional minority position.

Ben Maiden reports on how Argentina cleared the final legal hurdles to its bond exchange

In one of the first musharaka sukuks (joint ventures) of its kind, Denton Wilde Sapte advised Standard Bank and Dubai Islamic Bank in a deal with Dubai Metals and Commodities Authority (DMCC). The deal gave the investors the opportunity to receive periodic payments in gold bullion instead of cash for the first time in a public Islamic finance capital markets transaction. DMCC was advised by Afridi & Angell on Dubai law and by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer regarding English law.

Korea's new insolvency law gives financial institutions the certainty they need in their secured lending transactions to close out positions with defaulting counterparties and enforce rights to collateral. By Andrew Crooke

The Netherlands has published plans to implement the EU Takeover Directive and controversially dismantle some of the defences traditionally available to Dutch companies. By Hugo Oppelaar and Alexander Kaarls

Stringent public offer rules make public-to-private deals in France more challenging than in other EU jurisdictions. But changes to takeover rules could make structuring deals easier. Olivier Assant and Benjamin Kanovitch explain

Filippo Pingue of Simmons & Simmons assesses the prospects for Italian covered bonds

Recent legislation has led to an upsurge in the creation of certain types of real estate investment funds, says Andrea Marani of Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners

New legislation in Italy, some in response to the recent Parmalat scandal, aims to strengthen the country's capital markets and improve investor confidence. Corporate governance reforms that took effect at the beginning of this year fill a gap in legislation that until now ignored the issue of holding companies' liability. Changes to the country's tax regime that came into force at the same time make Italy more competitive with other centres in Europe. Expected changes to the law to allow the issuance of covered bonds could lead to the growth of a substantial market in these securities. Meanwhile, Article 129 of the Italian Single Banking Act continues to be a source of controversy, allowing the Bank of Italy to block the sale of unsuitable securities to Italian investors - a task it has apparently approached more vigorously in recent months. Articles in the following pages examine these and other legislative changes and how they will affect banks, investors and issuers.

Syndicated loans are only a recent phenomenon in Japan. Akira Marumo and Mitsue Tanaka assess the reasons for this belated development