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The New Zealand Bankers' Association (NZBA) has recently released the third edition of its Code of Banking Practice. The revised Code, which came into force on December 2 2002, does not make substantial changes to the second edition of the Code. It incorporates most of the material from a Statement of Principles issued by the Bankers' Association in 1999 and, unlike with previous editions, applies equally to business customers. The Code includes new sections about the provision of credit and merchant card services. It has also been reorganized and contains more explanation of each section, possibly at the expense of its accessibility to the public.

The Indian parliament passed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) (Amendment) Bill 2002 on December 2, giving more powers - including search and seizure rights - to SEBI. The amendments introduce new standards for investor protection and regulation of the securities market.

Reforms to Russia's bankruptcy and insolvency proceeds should be paving the way to Russian prosperity, but good intentions are being undermined by less sophisticated thinking. Thomas Williams reports from Moscow

Ben Maiden reports from New York on reaction to the appointment of Harvey Pitt's replacement as SEC chairman

A recent UK court judgement has stopped minority lenders blocking a workout that is not in their interests. Rob Mannix explains why the ruling is good news for the banking industry

The proposed New York Stock Exchange corporate governance rules submitted to the SEC in August of 2002 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act impose new requirements and obligations on audit committees. While most of these requirements will not become effective until 2003 and are subject to change through the SEC approval and rule-making processes, many companies are reviewing their audit committee charters to consider what changes may be required. Eric Robinson and Laura McIntosh of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York provide a model charter and explain some of its key elements.

The SEC has issued the first enforcement actions under its disclosure rules. The cases point to some of the difficulties in applying Regulation Fair Disclosure but should help issuers understand the types of activities it forbids. Leslie Silverman and SK Kang of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, New York, and Sebastian Sperber and James Small in Hong Kong explain

Simon Orton of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer looks at how the UK's new regulator has performed during its first 12 months, and predicts where it will focus attention in 2003

The conditions under which the assignment of a claim can be invoked against the debtor of the claim and other third parties in Belgium are set out in Article 1690 of the Civil Code.

The Ministry of National Economy has unveiled draft legislation setting out the framework for corporate bonds and securitization operations. The purpose of the new rules is to modernize existing legislation on bond issuance and provide Greek companies with new sources of funding. While the government itself has made some use of securitization in recent years, existing legal rules are quite unfavourable, as far as corporates are concerned. The draft attempts to correct this situation by providing a new set of regulations on the issuance of bonds backed by assets, including real estate and monetary claims against third parties, by Greek societe anonymes, as well as some necessary tax relief. New rules on issuing bonds are also proposed, at a time when the use of debt as a means of raising capital is being encouraged by the Athens Exchange and the Ministry of National Economy. It will become possible to issue bonds following a decision to do so by a company's board of directors, rather than needing a shareholders' decision as before.