Search results for

Shares of companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange are held with the Central Securities Depository (CSD) in book entry form. At the same time a direct registration system is in effect, according to which shares are recorded in the ultimate investor's name. No provisions or market practice exist to allow for omnibus accounts and settlement occurs at the final investor level. Transfers between investors are possible only through a market transaction, as off-exchange transfers are subject to various restrictions. This situation is creating problems with international broker-dealers effecting transactions on behalf of their clients, in the event of mistakes in the allocation of shares bought or other situations when a change is necessary in the way stock holdings have been recorded.

The trend to mould the Commercial Code of Japan to business needs continues. From April 1 2002, amendments to the Commercial Code will dramatically relax the restrictions on voting rights of shareholders of Japanese joint-stock companies (kabushiki kaisha).

"If you don't maximize due diligence regardless of what is going on in the market, you haven't been doing your job properly"

Financial institutions will soon have to adopt more transparent practices in the way they allocate shares to institutional and retail investors in primary offerings.

A revised Code of Banking Practice, applicable to relationships between individual customers and authorized institutions under the Banking Ordinance (AIs), became effective as of December 1 2001. AIs generally have six months to comply with its terms.

Bankers in over 15 countries fear domestic and international regulation is a growing threat to their business, according to an industry survey published in February. The rulemaking of national regulators such as the UK's Financial Services Authority, and efforts to introduce global measures such as the Basle II capital accord, now rank as top-10 threats to the banking world, the survey suggests.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (Moftec) recently issued Interim Measures regarding Examination and Approval of Foreign Invested Leasing Companies (FILCs). Taking effect as of September 1 2001, the Measures contain a framework for foreign investors to form equity or cooperative sino-foreign JV leasing companies.

Hong Kong's securities regulators plan to allow investment banks to support the share price of newly-listed companies.

Freehills is pushing ahead with plans to expand its Vietnamese focus after hiring the former head of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's Ho Chi Minh City office.

With the new Basle capital accord due by the end of the year, the committee has turned its attention to securitization and issued a working paper discussing risk sensitive and ratings-based approaches. Mark Nicolaides and Emma Dmitriev of Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw, London, review the implications