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Consistent with its plan to mold the Japanese Commercial Code to the needs of business, the Japanese government recently announced amendments to the laws on stock rights. From April 1 2002 two types of stock rights – detachable stock warrants and stock options – will be replaced by a new type of stock right: shinkabu-yoyakuken (abbreviated to yoyakuken), meaning literally "the reserved right to new shares".

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority recently issued a draft prudential standard for Authorized Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs), together with a draft guidance note. These measures aim to ensure that ADI outsourcing arrangements are subject to appropriate due diligence and continuous monitoring.

On June 4 2001, Mexico enacted a new Investment Companies Law (Ley de sociedades de inversión, or ICL). Most of the provisions of the new ICL became effective on December 4 2001, and all remaining provisions became effective as of January 1 2002. The ICL is the most recent attempt by the Mexican regulatory authorities to improve and modernize the asset management industry. It provides for very important changes to the way the industry will be shaped in the future. Although the regulators are still analyzing the issuance of specific regulations, we hope that they will be finalized and issued no later than the second half of 2002. The intent is to give a boost to the industry and to try to raise it to international standards. When compared to the macroeconomic size of asset management in other countries, we envision that the Mexican market has a potential growth rate of at least 30% per year over the next 10 years. In fact, the average growth rate of the industry during 2001 was approximately 67%, during the last three years it averaged 40% growth per year.

It has taken more than 30 years, but the EU has at last agreed on a legal format for the European Company, a vehicle it hopes will support the EU project by freeing corporates from national differences in legislation and boosting European economic activity. Jean-Louis Joris of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in Brussels explains what the European Company really is, how to set one up and asks whether, ultimately, it will be a success

The political and economic turmoil in Argentina has temporarily derailed one of last year's biggest energy deals in the country.

Enron headquarters,

To facilitate the movement of funds from offshore venture capital (VC) funds into China, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the State Administration of Industry and Commerce jointly promulgated the Provisional Regulations on Establishing Foreign-Invested Venture Capital Investment Enterprises, which came into effect September 1 2001.

Simmons & Simmons is pitching for US securities work after netting its first US-qualified securities partner in the UK. Christopher Lewis, a senior associate in the New York office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, has joined the firm's capital markets group.

As the Enron story unfolds, lawyers say it raises age-old issues regarding the independence of auditors and the need to ensure adequate objectivity.

Mayer Brown & Platt is expecting to scoop at least three new securitization deals after hiring Drew Salvest to strengthen its US-law capabilities.