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Amendments have been made to the Helsinki Exchanges regulations to allow block trading. These amendments took effect on February 25 2002. The reasons for the change include the desire to minimize the possibility of the manipulation of stock trading prices and to clarify the existing trading rules on the matter. It is hoped that the clarity these changes bring will encourage more block trading activity.

On January 15 2002, the Mexican Congress passed a new Credit Information Law (Ley para Regular las Sociedades de Información Crediticia, or CBIL). The CBIL became effective on February 14 2002, and is the most recent attempt by the Mexican government to provide greater certainty and transparency to the gathering and supply of credit history. As in other countries, bureau credit companies serve as a means to collect and provide reliable information as to the credit history of individuals and corporate entities. Before the CBIL, the activity of credit information companies was regulated by three provisions of the Law on Financial Groups (Ley para Regular las Agrupaciones Financieras) and by certain general rules regulating credit information companies. Originally envisioned to provide input to banking institutions, the scope of credit information companies (CICs) has grown rapidly and now provide services to department stores and a wide variety of commercial companies offering credit.

On February 26 2002, the House of Representatives (Câmara dos Deputados) approved the Proposal of Constitutional Amendment (PEC) which allows the opening of Brazilian broadcasting media companies to foreign capital, up to a limit of 30% of their share capital. However, the editorial functions in such companies must be executed by Brazilian-born citizens or foreigners who have been naturalized for more than 10 years.

The Agreement on the Swiss banks' code of conduct with regard to the exercise of due diligence (CDB) is a multilateral agreement. Under its framework, banks located in Switzerland have agreed with the Swiss Bankers Association to verify the identity of their contracting partners and, should there be any doubt, obtain from them a declaration of beneficial ownership with respect to the deposited assets. They have also agreed to refrain from providing any active assistance in the flight of capital or in tax evasion.

Last month IFLR celebrated law firms' achievements of 2001 when it hosted its annual awards ceremonies in London and Hong Kong. Among the top honours, Linklaters & Alliance was crowned European capital markets law firm of the year while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer won international law firm for Asia. Ben Maiden and Nick Ferguson present the winners of this year's awards and look at how, with the capital markets struggling to keep up the pace of the boom years, firms have found exciting new ways to serve clients

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has won the first of what it hopes will be a series of mandates for issues from Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation's innovative mortgage-backed securities (MBS) programme.

On February 21 2002 ISVAP (the Italian supervisory authority on private insurance) issued Circular No 474 D, which sets out new provisions on unit-linked life insurance policies. Unit-linked policies are those policies the performances of which are connected to shares of funds that may be either internal to the insurance company or external.

Under listing rule changes proposed by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), due to be implemented in June 2002, it will be harder for foreign companies to be listed on the ASX with special relief. Foreign companies already listed by the ASX would have only a few months to adapt to the new rules.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is advising Citigroup on the $1 billion initial public offering (IPO) of wholly-owned subsidiary Travelers Property Casualty. The New York firm, Citigroup's principal outside corporate and securities counsel, is working opposite Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, which is acting for the underwriters, led by Salomon Smith Barney.

SEC general counsel steps down