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Lucent Technologies, advised by Cravath, Swaine &Moore, finally pulled off a $3.6 billion initial public offering (IPO) of its optoelectronics division, Agere Systems, in late March, bringing a welcome boost to equity work for some lawyers in the US.

Rafael Maradei of Barbosa, Müssnich & Aragão Advogados, São Paulo, reviews the Brazilian government’s new attempt to reform clearing and settlement systems

Despite heavy criticism from various commercial associations, the Swiss government intends to go ahead with a revision of the Act on Cartels of October 6 1995. As the Swiss Federal Council declared on April 4 2001, the government is determined to win parliamentary support at least for the core issue of the revision, which involves the tightening of sanctions.

The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act has been the cornerstone of merger control in the US for 25 years. But revisions made to the Act this year will change the threshold at which mergers need to be reported in an attempt to bring more consolidations in the high-tech sector under the control of the federal authorities. James Lowe of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, DC examines the changes to the notification regime

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.

Pursuant to the Royal Decree of December 5 2000, the Belgian Law on Commercial Practices and the Protection of Consumers (LCP) of July 14 1991 became, as from May 1 2001, applicable to almost all financial instruments and securities. The general purpose of the Royal Decree was:

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.

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.

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.