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The Hong Kong government recently completed Asia's first asset-backed deal to be sold to retail buyers. Stephen Roith, Mary Matson, Connie Heng and Gareth Old look at how the transaction was structured

Banks must simplify deals to keep Hong Kong's retail investors hungry for structured notes. By Richard Mazzochi, Scott Farrell and Abigail Rath

Europe's dithering over the equivalence of national accounting standards to IAS is forcing issuers to raise capital elsewhere, say Stephen Revell and David Cotton

Decree Law 252/2003 of October 17, implementing EC Directives 2001/107/EC and 108/2001/EC, sets out new provisions regarding undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (Ucits) in three main areas. They are: Ucits management companies; the activity of Ucits; and the information to be provided to investors in Ucits.

On March 2 2004, the National Assembly passed the Act on Individual Debtor Rehabilitation (the AIDR), to assist individuals in financial difficulty. The AIDR provides for a court-sanctioned rehabilitation program outside the bankruptcy regime to debtors who have a stream of income. Upon the court's approval of the rehabilitation plan, the debtor may reschedule the debt for a period not exceeding eight years. To be eligible, the amount of the indebtedness is limited to W500 million ($435,000) for unsecured debts or W1 billion for secured debts, as further specified by the court rules, and the debtor should show a periodic stream of income.

Unlike the US, there have been few civil actions brought in Japan against issuers for misrepresentations in their disclosure documents. But this may change after an amendment to the Securities and Exchange Law, expected to take effect on December 1 2004, which will provide investors in the secondary market with a statutory right to sue issuers for damages caused by misrepresentations in certain disclosure documents. The amendment is part of a substantial revision to the securities law that is under deliberation in the Diet. Before the amendment, the Law did not provide secondary market investors with a right to sue issuers for misrepresentations and only provided primary market investors (who purchased securities relying on offering disclosure documents such as securities registration statements and prospectuses) a statutory right to sue issuers for damages caused by misrepresentations in their offering documents.

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra) was formed by the Indonesian government on January 26 1998 by virtue of Predential Decree 29 of 1998 as the implementation of Law 10 of 1998. After six years of its operation, the President of the Republic of Indonesia has issued a decree stipulating that Ibra will be dissolved if by April 30 2004 it accomplishes all of its pending duties related to: (a) the liquidation of operational dysfunctional banks; (b) the settlement of banks' shareholder obligations; (c) audit; and (d) transactions that existed before February 27 2004. This decree (Presidential Decree 15 of 2004) is effective as of February 27 2004.

The business community has greeted with enthusiasm the China-Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (Cepa) signed on June 29 2003. As its name states, Cepa is not a free trade agreement between two autonomous states, but an arrangement between two customs jurisdictions under the One Country, Two Systems principle. Such a regional arrangement is consistent and permitted under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

The Finnish Central Tax Board (FCTB) has issued a preliminary ruling on the taxation of securities lending. The applicant, a corporate entity generally liable to tax in Finland, intended to begin securities lending on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (SSE) in accordance with the SSE's standardized securities lending agreements. The terms and conditions of such agreements are standardized under the rules of the SSE and allowed the applicant to lend securities against a premium for a fixed period of time. The SSE acted as the clearinghouse for the lending agreements and placed itself as the adverse party to both the lender and the borrower.

International investment firms fear that a standardized approach to the offering process will cost them money and conflict with global policies, reports Andrew Crooke