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Derivatives specialists have been trying hard to defend their business in the wake of the collapse of Enron. At its annual general meeting the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) went as far as issuing a detailed rebuttal of claims that the market needs tighter regulation. "The market in the end exercised the ultimate sanction over [Enron]" its release asserts. But, try as they might, derivatives specialists cannot shake off all of the blame for the scandal. Now lawyers, too, have begun to suggest the markets may not be whiter than white. Though Enron's chief crime was to lie about how much it was really making, the company's collapse hides a quirk of the derivatives market that could bring down another organization if it goes unnoticed.

Investment banks are preparing for tighter regulation of the activities of analysts after financial watchdogs on both sides of the Atlantic moved to boost investors' confidence in the impartiality of banks' advice. Mounting concern in Europe and the US about researchers advising clients to buy stocks only because investment banking colleagues stand to win business from the companies in question has led regulators in Germany and France to issue new rules governing the conduct of stock-rating specialists.

New provisions appear in a revised Code of Banking Practice dealing with debt collection agencies in Hong Kong. These are significant in that they prohibit the use of certain improper or harassment tactics and require banks and financial institutions authorized under the Banking Ordinance (AIs) to stop collecting debts once the debtor is adjudged bankrupt. They also impose systems and procedures for the selection of debt collectors and the monitoring of their performance. AIs are required to comply with the revised Code on or before June 1 2002.

Two years ago the Nordic region was riding high on the technology wave but the capital markets have crashed and the region’s tech-heavy stock exchanges have suffered more than most. By Stephen Hoare

White & Case and Allen & Overy have advised on the first initial public offering (IPO) by a German company this year. Wind power company REpower Systems completed its €94.3 million ($83.2 million) listing on the Neuer Markt at the end of last month. The offering included a Rule 144A private placement in the US and a regulation S private placement outside the country.

Uría y Menéndez and former Andersen ally J&A Garrigues are working on what may be one of the largest initial public offerings in Spain this year. Gas Natural's €1.6 billion ($1.4 billion) sale of Enagas, its gas distribution arm, is one of the first steps in a drive to liberalize the country's energy markets and is expected to breathe new life into Spain's capital markets.

Non-US issuers of mortgage- and asset-backed securities stand to benefit from two recent Australian offerings. Teams at Clayton Utz and Allens Arthur Robinson in Sydney have closed the first globally offered securitizations issued off an SEC shelf registration, paving the way for other foreign issuers. Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw in New York also played a crucial role at the SEC, winning approval for Commonwealth Bank of Australia's 2002-1G Medallion Trust, which became the first structured finance transaction conducted by a non-US issuer using an SEC Form S-3 registered shelf prospectus.

As a reaction to China's accession to the World Trade Organization, new regulations have been introduced broadly classifying the projects in which foreign sponsors may or may not invest. The projects are listed in four categories: encouraged, permitted, restricted and prohibited. The new legislation appears in the Provisional Regulations for Guiding the Direction of Foreign Investment, and the Catalogue for Guiding Foreign Investment in Industries, effective from April 1 2002. These replace similar regulations dating from 1995 and 1997 respectively.

Securitization specialists are carefully considering an announcement by Eurostat that it intends to change the way it looks at sovereign debt securitizations when drawing up country balance sheets.

Finance lawyers are calling on the European Commission to drop proposals for a new takeover directive, which they say could damage Europe's capital markets. In an article in this month's IFLR, the chairman of the company law committee of the City of London Law Society, James Palmer, calls on The High Level Group of Company Law Experts which is making the recommendations in a report to the commission, to think again.