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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.

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

Linklaters and Herbert Smith are advising on the UK's largest, most complex restructuring in the utility sector. The restructuring of Anglian Water Group (AWG) will ringfence £1.9 billion ($2.75 billion) of existing debt and raise a further £1.6 billion in new debt.

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.

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.

In this final article in a series of three, Philip Gilligan and Alastair Timblick of Lovells consider the routes a distressed bank may take to survive

In line with its commitments to the World Trade Organization, China is opening more businesses to foreign investment. Andreas Lauffs and Andrew Tan of Baker & McKenzie look at the new regime

On April 3 2002, it was announced that the government of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) has reached an agreement with the Organization of Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) concerning the OECD's initiative on Harmful Tax Competition and Tax Havens.

When KPNQwest bought parts of troubled Global TeleSystems the companies agreed bankruptcy terms with creditors before the deal closed. Steven C Planchard of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton explains how