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The US SEC has proposed rules to improve accountability of auditors of public companies through a Public Accountability Board. The Board would be outside the control of accounting professionals and is expected to supplement the watchdog's oversight and enforcement aims by employing 50 full-time staff. The Commission stated that the measures would "expand the opportunities to detect and remedy ethical lapses or deficiencies in competence".

As EU member states discussed the Prospectus Directive for the first time recently, deep divisions remained. Ecofin, the EU council of finance ministers, had preliminary discussions and set out a general strategy for reaching an agreement, but conceded that the permanent representations would have to compromise before an agreement could be thrashed out.

A key characteristic of supplementary capital contributions (prestações suplementares), which Portuguese law (articles 201º to 213º of the Company Code) forsees being used exclusively for Lda companies, but which subject to certain requirements may also be materially adopted in SA companies, is to enable shareholders to make supplementary capital contributions. This is provided the terms under which such contributions are made are stipulated in the company's by-laws and that supplementary equity capital is non-interest bearing. To demand from the shareholders all or part of the amount (necessarily foreseen in the by-laws) of the supplementary capital contributions, a resolution from the General Meeting is always required.

Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Linklaters have become the first foreign firms to win approval to open second offices in China. Although all three firms had already acquired second offices through European mergers, none of them had licences in their own names. In line with China's World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, the Ministry of Justice had promised to relax its geographic restrictions on law firm offices. Before signing up to the WTO, China issued licences to foreign firms on a quota basis, good for five years in most cases. Even with a licence, firms could open only one office, forcing most into a decision between Shanghai and Beijing. Others, including Deacons and Stephenson Harwood & Lo, opened in Guangzhou, just across the border from Hong Kong, in Guangdong province.

Robin Griffith and Michail Papadakis of Clifford Chance consider Europe's recent compromise on German state aid and its effect on the credit risk of special institutions

A Delaware court has rejected claims of vote buying in the shareholder vote for Hewlett-Packard’s merger with Compaq. Meredith Brown and Gary Kubek of Debevoise & Plimpton, New York, examine the decision

Payment-in-kind notes have been popular in the US for some time. Now bankers in Europe are keen to add these instruments to their deals. Clifford Atkins and Philippa Dodd of Shearman & Sterling show how

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's FRESH Capital Securities deal enabled Fortis to raise tax deductible debt that would be treated by the regulators as equity. Donald Guiney explains how the deal worked

Various mergers, particularly in the media and food retailing markets, have caught the public eye over the past few years and drawn attention to various weak points in Austria's cartel and competition laws. The Austrian Parliament has responded by passing amendments to both the Cartel Act and the Competition Act and these will take effect on July 1 2002. According to the legislator, the new regulations are expected to enhance the attractiveness of Austria to both national and international investors.

Since the implementation of Council Directive 92/50/EEC of June 18 1992 relating to the coordination of procedures for the award of public service contracts (the Directive), the public procurement rules also apply to financial services with the exception of central bank and financial services that relate to the issuance, sale, purchase or transfer of securities and other financial instruments.