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Following the enactment of the most recent Investment Companies Law (Ley de Sociedades de Inversión) last year, the National Securities Commission (Comisión Nacional de Valores) is now considering regulations that would allow authorized asset managers to:

Electronic money has entered Austrian law. The e-money Act regulating the issuance of e-money became effective as of April 2 2002. It is largely based on the EC Electronic Money Directive of September 2000.

Although mergers or changes of corporate form have been permitted under Swiss law in individual cases, there have been no provisions available governing such transactions in general. Because there is a clear need for businesses to change their corporate form, either as a consequence of the company's growth or to meet the requirements of the capital markets, Switzerland's Federal Council entrusted a group of experts in 1999 to draft a law on the matter, which will come into force soon.

Under the amended Commercial Code of Japan, which took effect on April 1 2002, the provisions relating to convertible bonds were replaced by rules relating to bonds with stock acquisition rights. The purpose of the amendment is to treat the option element of the convertible bond in a similar fashion to a bare stock acquisition right. The aim of the amendment was not to change the substance of the law on convertible bonds.

An innovative football securitization has set a precedent for future sports financings in the Italian market. Parma football club's €95 million ($88 million) securitization of sponsorship, licensing agreements and television rights is the first football securitization since the introduction of a new securitization law in 1999.

Samsung Capital has completed its third international asset-backed securitization deal. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which has been involved on all the company's deals so far, advised Merrill Lynch, the arrangers. The deal was valued at $296 million and differed from the previous two in that it was placed in the US in reliance on Regulation S and Rule 144A. It was launched through the Cayman Islands-registered Samsung-Capital Auto 2002-1 special purpose vehicle and achieved a triple-A rating thanks to a monoline wrap provided by Financial Security Assurance (FSA).

An uncertainty about the enforceability of arbitration clauses in state contracts was finally settled with the publication on April 29 2002 of the new Arbitration Act, BE 2545 (2002). The effective date of this Act was April 30 2002.

The first German public to private leveraged buyout under the country's new takeover laws has been structured, testing the new regime. Allen & Overy, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Hengeler Mueller and Shearman & Sterling have each been involved in the legal work on the deal, in which CIBC World Markets helped finance the acquisition of Gardena Holding by Green Holding, a new company established by Industri Kapital 2000 Limited.

China has announced its intention to relax the strict rules governing the operation of foreign law firms. In its latest round of licences, issued to five Hong Kong firms, Deacons has become the first partnership to be awarded a licence to open a second office in mainland China. The Ministry of Justice has given Deacons the go-ahead to set up in Beijing, eight years after the firm opened its first office in Guangzhou. It is expected that the next round of licences will extend the opportunity to open second offices to foreign firms, many of which had previously been forced to make a difficult choice between opening in Shanghai or Beijing.

The Japanese government is calling for new securitization laws that will encourage banks to offer cheaper mortgages to low earners. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has submitted a plan to the Diet to amend the Housing Loan Corporation Law, changing the Corporation's role to that of a clearing-house for residential property securitization.