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Shareholders in European exchange Easdaq have decided to abandon rules prohibiting individual parties from owning more than 20% of the exchange. Previously, a shareholder with a stake over 20% would have been unable to vote at shareholders meetings. The London Stock Exchange has a 5% cap. The decision, which would allow an individual to take a majority stake in the exchange, comes amid rumours that Easdaq is considering a merger with Nasdaq.

China’s securities market has never been clearly market-oriented or under the firm rule of law. However, Kaili’s court case against the China Securities Regulatory Commission resulted in a landmark decision in favour of the plaintiff. Jingzhou Tao, managing partner of Coudert Brothers’ Beijing office, explains the importance of the ruling

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act will revolutionize the regulation of derivatives trading in the US by loosening the ties on larger market users and allowing the SEC to take part. Philip McBride Johnson of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom reviews the Act

Synthetic securitization was recently introduced successfully into Asia in the HK Synthetic MBS issue, which was the first transaction to address the specific issues raised by the Asian capital markets. Patrick Lines and John Elias of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Hong Kong describe the deal and explore some of the primary structural issues that had to be addressed

Christophe Caffard in conjunction with Philip Boys, Lovells, Paris, describes the legal and regulatory environment for online brokers in France

Like Deutsche Börse, France’s COB is looking to help stablize stock prices by tightening its rules governing initial public offerings. Laurence Mitrovic, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Paris, looks at the regulators plans and the unfavourable response to them

The Bills of Exchange Act (the Act), which regulates the law on bills of exchange, cheques and promissory notes was enacted in 1964. The Bills of Exchange Amendment Act of 2000 amends the Act, mainly for the protection of consumers and also to keep in step with the times.

Banks know that losses due to operational risk will cost them. But how much capital should they assign to cover those costs? Richard Bethell-Jones of Denton Wilde Sapte, London, assesses the Basle Committee’s attempts to develop guidelines

Electronic banking is becoming more and more fashionable in Switzerland. A great number of established banks now also offer their services on the internet. And so far five banks have been licensed to do exclusively e-banking. The Federal Banking Commission takes a liberal approach to this new form of banking. This supervisory authority considers the availability of e-banking in existing banks as a mere extension of sales channels which is not subject to an additional permit and must not even be notified to the FBC.

In December last year, the European Parliament approved several amendments to the 13th Directive on Company Law concerning Takeover Bids. The amendments include allowing the board to increase the share capital of the company during the period of acceptance, as long as shareholder authorization was received at a general meeting held not earlier than 18 months before the acceptance period began, and extending the duties of the directors to consider employment when giving their opinion on a bid. It is unlikely that either the European Commission or EU governments generally will accept these amendments. At present, the European Council has until April 2001 to finish its second reading of the Takeover Directive. If the amendments are not approved, the process of conciliation will begin, by which the Commission will attempt to broker a compromise. If no compromise is reached, the European Commission will have to start the process again with a new draft.