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The Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2001 came into force on April 6 2001, enabling limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to be incorporated from that date. These partnerships have many of the characteristics of limited liability companies and adopt some of the principles of partnership law. This article discusses some of the important distinctions between LLPs and: (i) limited partnerships under the Limited Partnerships Act 1907; and (ii) limited liability companies incorporated under the Companies Act 1985.

On March 29 2001, the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (FBC) decided to establish specific minimum standards for the account opening and monitoring of exclusively internet-based banks and securities traders. These standards are intended to assure the quality of client identification and monitoring at internet-based banks until the revised provisions of the agreement on the Swiss Banks' Code of Conduct with regard to the exercise of due diligence (CDB 98) are presented. The specific minimal standards apply by way of a supplement to the already existing provisions concerning account opening and monitoring, which continue to be fully applicable.

Political chaos in the Philippines has left firms struggling for deals and finding project finance and restructuring still the best bets. Nick Ferguson reports

Allen & Overy is advising on the construction of a $4 billion petrochemical plant in Guangdong Province, southern China. The firm is acting on the deal as counsel to Shell and a joint venture between Shell, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and two Chinese companies

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has acted on a mortgage-backed securitization that has enabled an Australian originator to access US money markets for the first time.

Jonathan Inman, head of project finance at Linklaters in Tokyo, is leaving the firm's Japanese office in June. He will resume his work in the London office at the end of August, advising energy clients such as Enron, following the end of his secondment.

Name change

Thomas Abbondante Allen & Overy's debt practice made waves again last month when the firm helped secure the largest ever high-yield bond issue by a European company outside the telecommunications sector. US partners Thomas Abbondante and Adam Kupitz led the firm's high-yield team advising Goldman Sachs International, Royal Bank of Scotland and Hypovereinsbank on the euro 550 million ($471 million) 10.4% bond issued by Messer Griesheim Holding, the holding company of the German industrial gases group Messer Griesheim.

BBLP Beiten Burkhardt Mittl & Wegener was hit in early May by the defection of its entire Frankfurt mergers and acquisitions (M&A) team and all but one of its five partners in the city to Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Led by the managing partner of the firm's Frankfurt office, Gerhard Schmidt, partners Heiner Drüke, Stephan Grauke and Uwe Hartmann are to move to the local office of the US firm leaving just one partner, the public notary Thilo Krause-Palfner, to hold the fort for BBLP in the city.