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Before the enactment of Azerbaijan's new Civil Code, the paper-based Azerbaijani payment system was a major contributing factor to the slowness and complexity of inter-bank transfers. Since the establishment of a commercial banking system in the country, the demand for electronic banking services has grown constantly. This demand was first recognized in law when Azerbaijan's new Civil Code was adopted, which authorized electronic banking and electronic signatures for the first time. That initial legislative step has set the stage for electronic banking that had previously been limited to the introduction of automated teller machines. Fortunately, the National Bank of Azerbaijan (the NBA) has used this new legislative basis to bring innovative technologies to Azerbaijan's banking sector.

On March 8 2001, the Bank of Thailand, by virtue of section 9 bis of the Commercial Banking Act BE 2505 (1962), issued Letter No Tor Por Tor Sor Nor Sor (11) Wor 514/2544 on Permission for Commercial Banks to Undertake Escrow Accounts Business. This permits a commercial bank to render escrow account services to clients who have entered into either a buy and sell agreement, or sale agreement of various properties with the seller; the commercial bank will allow the withdrawal of money from the said account only if the purchaser and seller have fulfilled the terms and conditions as set out in the escrow account agreement.

From 1994, the year in which cellular phone concessions were awarded, the number of users of this type of service increased from 69,795 to 1,921,065 in 1999, which means an increase of 87.2% per annum on the number of subscribed users. This figures vastly exceeds the initial projections of all involved, both companies and the government (initial calculations were of around 250,000 subscribed users in the first five years). As a result of this situation, and in order to increase the competition within the Colombian wireless telecommunications market, on February 2 2000, the Colombian Congress enacted Law 555, which sets forth the general framework for the provision of Personal Communication Services (PCS) in Colombia.

News round-up In November, Helsinki firm Heikki Haapaniemi failed to save itself from collapse as partners agreed to go their separate ways. The partnership's decision to disband came at the end of a series of defections that rocked the firm throughout 2000.

On April 5 2001 the Argentine government published Decree No 396/01, effective April 8 2001, introducing important changes to the reporting thresholds for filings required under Argentina's antitrust laws for certain transactions.

The US water infrastructure needs billions of dollars of investment. As concern mounts that many towns and cities may struggle in the not-too-distant future to provide citizens with clean, safe water, IFLR invited a panel of industry specialists to discuss the obstacles and opportunities created by what may be the US’s next great infrastructure challenge

Shearman & Sterling has advised global coordinators Merrill Lynch and Banco Santander Central Hispanico on the controversial listing of Iberia, Spain's flag carrier airline. The US firm's Paris-based corporate partner Manuel Orillac worked on the deal while Cuatrecasas capital markets specialist Fernando Torrente advised on Spanish law. UK firm Simmons & Simmons acted for the selling shareholder, Sociedad Estatal de Participiciones Industriales (SEPI), the government industrial holding company responsible for the country's privatization programme.

Angela Clist Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy are advising on a whole business-style securitization in the UK utility industry, involving a £2 billion ($2.86 billion) bond issue to finance the sale of Welsh Water to equity-less company Glas Cymru. The deal is the UK's first non-equity funded utility financing, with profits to be returned to customers through rebates on water bills. Stephen Curtis is leading the Clifford Chance team acting for RBS Financial Markets and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, which are marketing the issue for around a month, before an expected closing in mid-May.

Linklaters & Alliance member De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is set to become the first Dutch firm to open in China. De Brauw, along with ten other firms, got its licence from the Chinese ministry of justice in Beijing in the latest round of licence distribution. The office will open in Shanghai in September, complementing Linklaters' exisiting office in Beijing. De Brauw's other offices are in Brussels, London, New York and Prague.

Kevin Muzilla US firms Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and Weil, Gotshal & Manges have advised on the first refinancing this year of a leveraged buy-out (LBO). The firms acted for lead manager Deutsche Bank and United Biscuits respectively on the $326 million refinancing of last year's LBO of UK biscuit maker by the Finalream consortium, which included Cinven, Paribas Affaire Industrielles, DB Capital Partners and Nabisco The refinancing of the United Biscuits LBO was done through a high-yield bond issue of two of senior subordinated notes, one of £120 million ($173 million) at 10% and redeemable in 2011 and the other of euro 160 million ($143 million) also due in 2011.