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On July 14 2002 the Turkish Competition Board issued a new communiqué, mainly in line with the European Commission Block Exemption Regulation, on the group exemption of vertical agreements, replacing previous communiqués on group exemptions of exclusive distribution agreements, exclusive purchasing agreements and franchise agreements. Agreements benefiting from the previous group exemption communiqués must now comply with the provisions of the new communiqué by July 14 2003 to be exempted from the application of the relevant article of the Law on Protection of Competition regarding the prohibition of concerted practices resulting in the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition in a market for goods and services.

In recent years and under prevailing conditions on the Swedish stock market, many companies have initiated discussions on adjusting the terms and conditions of various types of option programmes to restore an effective incentive for the participating employees. These discussions involve adjusted strike or subscription prices, extended exercise or subscription periods or other, less comprehensive, adjustments of a purely technical or editorial nature. This will, of course, give rise to a number of considerations.

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.

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.

In October 2002 the Finnish government issued a proposal to the Finnish parliament to replace the existing Finnish Act on Financial Supervision by a new Act of the same name. The purpose of the proposed Act is to intensify and make more efficient financial supervision through a number of amendments to the supervisory measures and powers available to the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority (FSA) and to increase the authority of the FSA.

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 Securities and Exchange Law of Japan does not generally require any company to report quarterly business results and financial condition. Although certain listed companies voluntarily disclose financial results on a quarterly basis, only companies with their securities listed on certain markets for emerging companies, such as Mothers on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), are required to file quarterly disclosure statements under the regulations of the relevant stock exchanges.

The cold winds of corporate scandal and tightening securities regulation are blowing north from the US. Ben Maiden reports on how Canada is trying to keep its own identity, at its own pace

Allen & Overy has advised lead manager and arranger Morgan Stanley on the securitization of forest land by Finnish forest products company Stora Enso.