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Mexico’s legislators have been busy — protecting minority shareholders, revamping the insolvency regime and overhauling securities laws. Ben Maiden reports

Japan is one of the most challenging markets for international firms. But the country is short of lawyers, and foreign firms believe soon they will provide the expertise demanded. Nick Ferguson reports

In the UK, Weil Gotshal & Manges closed a second football club securitization for client Bear Stearns with DLA advising Manchester United on a £30 million ($44 million) ticket receivables deal. Weil Gotshal and DLA also worked opposite each other in the same roles for Everton FC's securitization. Weil Gotshal advised Barclays Capital as lead manager on the £357 million securitization of credit card receivables by Capital One Bank. Clifford Chance advised Capital One Bank which is using the master trust structure.

Recent action by New York's attorney general against Merrill Lynch has cast doubt over the regulation of analysts everywhere. Wall Street firms have scrambled to announce new initiatives to guarantee the objectivity of their stock-dealing advice. The SEC has issued tougher rules to govern research, and regulators in Europe have said they will consider the issue, too. IFLR invited seven leading figures from the London markets to discuss the problem

Thomas Williams reports on how Italy’s lawyers are testing the country’s new takeover and securities rules and working on deals to modernize the economy

A rare sale and leaseback hotel securitization is expected to establish a template for future deals in the industry. Morgan Stanley's £531 million ($776 million) sale and leaseback for Thistle Hotels is the first successful commercial mortgage-backed securities deal (CMBS) to come from a single originator rather than using a pool of hoteliers to spread the risk.

A panel of lawyers in Japan has proposed changes to corporate bankruptcy law to better protect secured creditors. The proposals aim to prevent income streams that should be used to repay investors in a securitization from being distributed to unsecured creditors.

Chadbourne & Parke is advising General Electric Capital on its purchase of a stake in 20 of Cogentrix's 28 power plants for $273 million. The deal is part of Aquila's purchase of privately-held power producer Cogentrix Energy. The transaction includes a purchase price of $415 million for 100% of the common stock of Cogentrix, as well as the assumption of $355 million of debt and approximately $770 million of non-recourse project-level debt.

European finance ministers last month failed to discuss the controversial prospectus directive, despite approving two other components of the EU's plans for an integrated securities market by 2003. The European Council of Finance Ministers (Ecofin), approved the draft directives on market abuse and financial conglomerates, but left off the agenda the prospectus directive, which aims to put in place a legal framework for companies to issue a single Europe-wide prospectus.

The EU has rushed through laws that will create uniform rules to allow all companies to use collateral to support cross-border payment and security transactions, so long as the counterparty is a bank or financial institution. The European Parliament fast-tracked the collateral directive through the legislative process as a priority part of the Financial Services Action Plan, which aims to create a single European market for financial services by late 2003.