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The outgoing European Commission has proposed a directive to make it easier for public companies to alter the size, structure and ownership of their capital.

British property company Land Securities is attempting to cut its debt-servicing costs with an innovative hybrid securitization platform that uses a sliding scale of covenants.

More collaboration is needed between national banking, securities and insurance watchdogs to improve the way financial conglomerates are regulated, said speakers at the annual International Bar Association conference in Auckland last month.

The Capital Markets Law (CML) came into effect on February 24 2004. The regulatory structure created under the CML includes a new Capital Markets Authority (CMA) empowered to regulate the issuance of and trading in securities and the establishment of a physical stock exchange, called the Saudi Capital Market. Saudi Arabia does not have a physical stock exchange. Rather, shares in Saudi Arabian public joint-stock companies are traded by local banks using the Tadawul electronic exchange under the regulatory authority of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA).

The Financial Supervisory Commission amended the Guidelines for the Authorization of Banking Business in July 2004. The amendments now include prerequisites that foreign financial institutions (including foreign financial holding companies) must satisfy to establish subsidiary banks in Korea. The amendments have also relaxed the approval standards for foreign banks wishing to set up branches in Korea.

To date mortgages have not been a popular method of securing obligations in Russia for three main reasons.

Two Spanish and three international law firms have benefited from roles on the initial public offering (IPO) of Spanish company Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte (Cintra), the largest in Spain since 2001.

Network Rail: borrowing to fund development Linklaters, Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance have all won roles on UK rail operator Network Rail's planned £20 billion ($37 billion) multicurrency note programme.

An elite group of firms benefited from the gradual recovery of international equity markets last year, as revealed by IFLR's annual survey. The apparent improvement in fortunes of these firms, however, hides a trend with potentially worrying implications for legal advisers - the shift away from US-listed deals fully registered with the SEC. The burden of corporate governance legislation is deterring foreign issuers from seeking the US listings that used to be a badge of respectability in the international capital markets. "Sarbanes-Oxley has killed that market," says Nick Eastwell, head of capital markets at UK firm Linklaters.

Consistent and well-crafted rules are critical to spur good corporate governance in Asia, says Jamie Allen