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The passing of the Commerce Amendment Act in May 2001 marked another step towards the harmonization of Australian and New Zealand business law. Proposed in 1999 by the previous National government and then modified by the present government, it is one of a series of changes in New Zealand competition law, which also includes specific regulatory regimes for parts of the electricity and telecommunications industries.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on May 17 2001 unveiled the long-awaited online price bidding proposal, a new mechanism of price fixing in initial public offerings (IPOs). The proposed scheme is intended to allow market forces of supply and demand to determine the price of primary securities offerings.

The new provisions of the Act on Insurance Companies (ICA) and the Act on Foreign Insurance Companies (FICA) have expanded the business opportunities of Finnish insurance companies and insurance companies located outside the EEA. New rules on the marketing of insurance products and services were introduced concurrently. The objective of the amendments is to expand the possibilities of insurance companies to operate in the financial markets and to harmonize the marketing rules and requirements applicable to credit institutions and insurance companies. The amendments of the ICA and FICA became effective on May 15 2001.

Allen & Overy's recent poach of a securitization specialist from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is already paying dividends. Ken Aboud, the jewel in the crown of Orrick's highly regarded Asian securitization team, has just completed Singapore's first securitization to be rated by one of the three leading credit rating agencies. Freshfields advised Fitch IBCA on the S$200 million ($110 million) issue while Wong Partnership, the Singapore firm that formed a failed joint venture with Clifford Chance, advised CapitaLand Residential.

John Walker, Milbank Tweed US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has helped close the largest static collateralized debt obligation (CDO) in Europe, advising three Portuguese Banks on the second Tagus Global Bond Securitization. At euro1.1 billion ($942 million) the transaction is the largest static CDO in Europe and only the second collateralized bond obligation to include Portuguese debt. Milbank Tweed partner John Walker advised lead managers and arrangers Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank on the transaction that involved an issue of three tranches of bonds at different values and maturity dates on behalf of a syndicate of Portuguese banks. Pedro Cassiano and Paulo Gomez from the Portuguese firm Veira de Almeida & Associados advised the syndicate of banks, including Banco Comercial Português, Espírito Santo Activos Fianceiros and AF Investimentos Gestão de Patrimónios, on Portuguese law.

Among the most important recent developments in the Belgian financial landscape are the transformation of the Brussels stock exchange into Euronext Brussels and the start of Nasdaq Europe following the takeover of the pan-European Easdaq market by Nasdaq.

A faltering economy and troubled stock exchanges have forced the German government and industry to seek legal reform to reawaken the markets. Thomas Williams reports from Frankfurt where lawyers are hoping to profit from a change in attitude among rule-makers and corporate clients

Christian Lambie, Allen & Overy Building on the success of its 1999 securitization of the UK's Broadgate shopping centre, Allen & Overy has pulled off a similar deal for UBS Warburg. The UK firm has advised the bank as structurer and lead manager on a £575 million ($812 million) for UK property company British Land in the first of two deals it closed in June in the commercial mortgage-backed securitzation field. The transaction involved the issue of secured and unsecured debt by a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of the British Land Group, backed by rental payments from 35 supermarkets leased by to UK grocer J Sainsburys. The debt was then bought and reissued by an orphan company, Werretown Supermarkets Securitizations, which issued two senior tranches of bonds.

In May, 12 years into negotiations to create an EU directive on takeovers, Germany suddenly got cold feet. Hartmut Krause of Allen & Overy, Frankfurt, discusses the compromise with the EU it has since won and how it can draft its own legislation to protect German companies from hostile international bids

Australian firm Clayton Utz has advised on the world's largest trade in carbon credits. The deal, completed in Sydney in early June, was struck between Japan's Cosmo Oil and Australian Plantation Timber, and involves the trade of one million CO2 tonnes over an 11-year term. The trading of carbon credits is not a well-established field. The Kyoto Protocol would have provided a framework for such trades but so far no developed nations have ratified the agreement and the withdrawal of US support is likely to bring about its complete collapse.