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Bernd Singhof and Michael Schlitt look at how Lufthansa used an auction of underwriters to get better pricing on its recent rights offer

The wave of consolidation that has engulfed the US financial services industry this year continued in July with two new mergers. Four US law firms were among those to reap the rewards.

The European Commission has published its proposals for a directive on capital requirements for banks, which will turn the new Basel Accord into EU law.

On June 28 2004, amendments to Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) Rule 61-501 - Insider Bids, Issuer Bids, Business Combinations and Related Party Transactions came into force. The Rule protects the interests of minority security holders of issuers by providing (i) greater disclosure regarding, (ii) an independent valuation of, and (iii) an effective veto over, certain transactions with perceived inherent conflicts of interest. It is expected that similar amendments will be made to Quebec Policy Statement Q-27, the only other Canadian jurisdiction to maintain equivalent rules.

Governments across Asia are merging their financial watchdogs amid mounting pressure to improve the quality of regulation.

For years the German banks have lauded the virtues of Pfandbriefe. Now the rest of Europe is catching on. Jim Rice, Andrew Roberts and Katie Kelly look at the progress of the market and the legislation that underpins it

In June 2004, an advisory board of the Financial Services Agency (FSA) proposed that foreign issuers in Japan be permitted to file certain disclosure documents in English. It aims to attract foreign issuers to the Japanese market by reducing their costs of preparing disclosure documents in Japanese.

Certain foreign currency transactions between residents and non-residents that involve non-cash settlements will be carried out using special bank accounts under new Russian currency legislation.

In January 2003, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong published its conclusions to its consultative paper on amendments to the Listing Rules. Changes to the Rules were formerly announced on January 31 this year and most of the new provisions took effect from March 31 2004.

The legal advisers to Taiwan's first real estate investment trust have worked closely with regulators to fill in some of the gaps in the one-year-old rules governing these transactions, says Kevin Liao