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The International Accounting Standards Board must rethink some of its proposed rule changes, say Mark Nicolaides and Saffron Street of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw

The New Zealand general election was held on July 27. Contrary to early predictions, the incumbent Labour government did not win enough seats in the House of Representatives to have a clear majority. Labour (52 seats) and the Progressive Coalition (two seats) won 54 seats between them in the 120 seat House and opted to form a minority government, relying on a formal agreement with United Future New Zealand (eight seats) to support them on matters of confidence and supply. Labour leader Helen Clark will enter her second three-year term as prime minister and the majority of cabinet ministers will retain their pre-election portfolios. Despite Labour winning only a minority of seats in the House, it is likely that the government will continue with its pre-election monetary, banking and securities markets and institutions policy.

In July 2002 the pan-European exchange virt-x announced the introduction of a central counterparty (CCP) for spring 2003. With the interposition of the CCP between the parties trading on virt-x, clearing as a new element will be introduced after the trading (buying and selling of securities) and before the settlement (delivery and payment of securities in fulfilment of the contractual obligations resulting from trading).

Saudi Arabia's growing need for reliable sources of power and desalinated water has led the Kingdom to explore private investment in this sector, perhaps as early as October 2002.

Jay Lawrence Westbrook of the University of Texas School of Law considers the merits of three initiatives to deal with international workouts

Europe has set an ambitious timetable to combat Market Abuse. IFLR invited five financial specialists to discuss EU plans so far

The Irish government has recently enacted regulations to give effect to two EU directives: Directive 2000/28/EC relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions; and Directive 2000/46/EC relating to the taking up, pursuit of and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions.

Many times the future of Hong Kong has been written off. Many times the region has bounced back. By Nick Ferguson

Linklaters has advised a consortium of private equity houses on Europe's most expensive leveraged buyout. The €4.9 billion ($4.78 billion) acquisition of Legrand is the biggest private equity buyout for a decade, will be the largest mezzanine financing in Europe and the biggest high-yield financing in France.

John D Moore of Goldman Sachs looks at what the new law means for companies