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To cope with commercial crimes in Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) recently published proposed revisions to the existing Guidance Note on Money Laundering for public consultation.

The Irish Finance Bill 2003 was published on February 6 2003 and contains the long-awaited beneficial changes to the existing Irish securitization legislation. The intention behind the changes (which come into force with immediate effect) is to make Ireland the jurisdiction of choice for the location of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) for structured finance transactions.

The State Development Commission (SDC) and the Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) have jointly promulgated Interim Measures on the Administration of Foreign Debts. The new Measures, which were enacted on January 8 will be effective from March 1 2003.

The Cayman Islands has always been responsive to the needs of the international financial community in introducing expedient legislation. Last year saw the creation of the segregated portfolio company (SPC) by way of amendment to the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands, and now revisions in 2003 will make it a more attractive corporate vehicle for mutual funds and multi-issuer structured finance vehicles. Provisions that have caused difficulties in obtaining a rating for structured finance deals will be removed and a mechanism introduced to enable any existing Cayman Islands company to convert into an SPC. The key points are described below.

An increasing number of Canadian issuers have steered away from fixed price bids recently and opted for an auction tender process, or so-called Dutch auction, when completing substantial issuer bids. The Dutch auction issuer bid model has been further modified by issuers and investment dealers as a technique to distribute public offerings of securities and, most recently, has also been used by investors seeking to acquire shares in public issuers.

Rules requiring companies to report Gaap equivalents to their non-Gaap numbers could bury useful information among confusing detail and discourage management from providing certain data in SEC filings. It may be investors who suffer, says David Bernstein, of Clifford Chance, New York

Proposals in Japan to allow the use of foreign company shares in stock-for-stock deals with domestic entities are likely to fail because the government will not remove prohibitive tax burdens. Philip Quirk, head of legal at Morgan Stanley in Japan, reviews the developments

A recent computer virus attack on servers that direct traffic on the internet hit Korea especially hard. One reason is that Korea is one of the countries in the world that uses the internet the most, with 70% of the population plugged into the web. In the wake of the attack that crippled internet access over one weekend, a Korean civic group is preparing to file a lawsuit. This may be a good time for many IT-related companies to take a close look at their rights and obligations under the relevant Korean statutes.

In order to further develop the Colombian financial market, new regulations have been enacted over recent years, creating a regulatory framework that is becoming more responsive to international and national market dynamics. With this in mind, it is worth considering the more innovative structures now used in banking, especially, tier two capital debt for credit establishments.

Oil company BP last month gave Russia's recovery a boost when it announced a £4.2 billion ($6.8 billion) joint venture with the country's third-largest oil company TNK.