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There was further evidence last month of a return to business for US securities lawyers left dormant by the bear market as a series of initial public offerings (IPOs) hit the trading floor. In the matter of a few weeks a string of equity offerings emerged, equalling the product of whole quarters earlier in the year.

The French government has promised to reform the country's outmoded bankruptcy laws after claiming the international banking community left French engineering group Alstom to sink because the laws make lenders liable for all debts if they fund a non-viable company.

France has changed its consumer code to ensure usury law does not apply to high-yield bonds, resolving legal uncertainty.

France recently overhauled its financial regulatory system, but stopped short of following the US's tough tactics towards insider trading. Eric Cafritz and James Gillespie of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson compare the different approaches

A new Greek law has expanded securitization into the private sector. George Pergamalis of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer explains what market participants need to consider when doing their deals

A new law in Spain establishes a regime that goes beyond pure tax incentives, and could represent Spain's entry into the race to be the jurisdiction with most favourable taxation for debt issues.

With the rapid development of information technology, use of personal information about individuals is increasing. In order to help to protect the rights and welfare of individuals, the Law Concerning Protection of Personal Information was promulgated on May 30 2003. The new law harmonizes protection of personal information (as defined in the law) and the use of personal information. The law sets out not only basic policies for the protection of personal information but also basic obligations for any enterprise that uses a personal information database for business. Similar obligations for the public sector are also prescribed by separate laws.

The Companies Amendment Bill now pending before parliament will reform the provisions relating to accounting/auditing standards. The highlights are:

In recognition of the prevalent sovereign immunity doctrine, Act IV of the Hungarian Civil Code (1959) specifically allowed the Hungarian state to enter into private law contractual obligations (for example, loans, state guarantee and construction mandates). However, for several years the scope and procedure governing the state's liability for the performance of these contracts have not been clarified further by publicly-accessible regulations.

New York firm Winston & Strawn is expanding its financial services regulation focus with the hire of Bank One's general counsel.