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Australia's first successful proceedings for civil penalty and compensation orders for insider trading bode well for the regulator's attempts to rid the market of misconduct. By John Warde and Kim Reid

New regulatory limitations on offshore restructuring by Chinese private enterprises will limit their ability to attract overseas financing, say Terence Foo and Jeffrey Ren

The Danish Government has recently proposed a new form of charge over the assets of businesses. In English terms, the virksomhedspant would be recognized as a form of a fixed and floating charge. If introduced, the proposal could benefit financial institutions and corporations by simplifying the structure for taking security over assets of businesses. The vehicle would be a special mortgage deed registered in a public registry with reference to the assets (or, in a restricted form, to the portfolio of trade receivables). Previously, in Denmark, the regime for taking security required that individual assets be recognized and identified and the security over them established with reference to those particular assets.

For many observers, Argentina's debt restructuring has promised much and delivered little in terms of offering new solutions to future crises. Despite this, there are important lessons to be learned from the world's biggest sovereign exchange.

The recent publication of the Implementing Regulations (Official Gazette (Umm Al-Qura) edition 4021) to the Capital Market Regulations (Royal Decree M/30, 2/6/1424H), has given rise to some uncertainty for prospective issuers in an increasingly active IPO market in the Kingdom.

Despite Finland's delay in implementing the Market Abuse Directive (2003/6/EC), the Helsinki Stock Exchange has began applying the safe-harbour framework included in the Exemptions Regulation (Commission Regulation EC 2273/2003 implementing Directive 2003/6/EC regarding exemptions for buy-back programmes and stabilization of financial instruments) with respect to stabilization. Accordingly, as of this date, the stabilization rules of the Exemptions Regulation, including the reporting rules, apply to stabilization on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. The previous set of rules on stabilization is no longer in force. However, the Helsinki Stock Exchange has not yet begun applying the Exemptions Regulation with respect to share buy-backs. The current rules of the Helsinki Stock Exchange on share buy-backs will continue to be in force until further notice.

Japanese authorities are adopting stricter disclosure rules, triggered by high-profile cases in which companies were found to have made false statements.

A new draft competition law is expected to align Greek competition law with Regulation 1/2003/EC (on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty) and Regulation 139/2004/EC (on the control of concentrations between undertakings). The bill is expected to be submitted for parliamentary vote before the end of February and to be enacted soon thereafter without material changes from its current form.

Ben Maiden reports on how SEC proposals could cut the flow of information to investors rather than encourage it

On February 9 2005, the new Brazilian Bankruptcy Law was enacted (Law 11,101), providing a new set of rules for bankruptcy in Brazil. The law will come into force 120 days after its publication. The new law will replace the former Brazilian Bankruptcy Law (Decree Law 7,661) but will not apply to bankruptcy or concordata proceedings filed before the new law comes into effect.