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An Insider Trading Bill is pending before the Cypriot parliament which, when enacted, will constitute a comprehensive legislative code dealing with all aspects of insider trading. The provisions of the Bill are based on the EU Directive on Insider Trading (Dir, 89/592, OJ 1989 No. L334/30) as well as insider trading legislation in the UK. Until the Bill becomes law, insider trading is controlled, albeit unsatisfactorily, by rules derived from general law. The protections against insider trading available under general law may be summarized as follows:

The Business Bankruptcy Reform Act, S.1914, was introduced into the US Senate on April 2 1998. S.1914 proposes to amend the Bankruptcy Code to make it clear that assets transferred in a securitization are not property of the estate in a bankruptcy filed by the transferor. If passed, this amendment may well remove the legal uncertainties as to whether the bankruptcy trustee may reach financial assets previously transferred to a special purpose entity that has issued debt or equity backed by those assets. Other sections of S.1914 would amend the Bankruptcy Code to broaden the category of transactions that qualify as swaps or repurchase agreements and for the first time permit cross-netting pursuant to master agreements of amounts due and owing under forwards, swaps, repurchase agreements, commodities and securities contracts.

On March 11, South Africa further liberalized exchange controls. Most of the changes were effective on announcement.

Holders of a joint bank account in the UAE typically instruct the bank to allow 'either or survivor' to operate the account. The purpose of this mandate is to allow the surviving account-holders to continue to operate the account following the death of one of the other account-holders.

The Electronic Commerce Policy Committee has made recommendations for a national electronic commerce framework, to attract foreign and local companies to base electronic commerce hub activities in Singapore. Among its recommendations is the enactment of a proposed Electronic Transactions Bill, to provide the legal framework to address issues posed by electronic transactions and electronic commerce, such as:

The New Zealand government recently announced a package of 'in principle' reforms to the electricity industry, which have as their primary objective obtaining 'a better deal for electricity consumers'.

Melia Inversiones Americanas (MIA), a Dutch company owning hotels in Latin America and the Caribbean, has been floated in a US$163.8 million international offering. The shares were offered to Spanish retail and institutional investors and to US institutions though a private placement. US firm Brown & Wood advised on New York and English law with Spanish law advice from Cuatrecasas. The shares, placed in the US through Rule 144A American Depositary Shares, were the first non-Spanish stock to be listed on the stock exchanges in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao. A depositary system has been implemented to allow the bearer shares of MIA to be represented by electronic book entries in Spain (anotaciones en cuenta). The system is designed to satisfy both Spanish law relating to registered securities and the requirements of Dutch law on the transfer of bearer shares. Stibbe, Simont, Monahan, Duhot advised on Dutch aspects.

Citigroup, the new company formed by the Travelers/Citicorp merger, appears to breach the US’s regulatory barriers between financial services. But lawyers suggest there are possible structures for the company to offer the full range of services. Paul Lee reports

Traditional Italian lawyers are beginning to adapt to competition from larger overseas firms. The believe they must follow the English and American model while retaining Italian characteristics. Barbara Galli reports

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), the largest provider of telecommunications services in Japan, has completed a US$1 billion SEC-registered global note offering, part of a trend by Japanese corporate issuers to borrow in the international market, rather than from Japanese banks or in the Japanese domestic bond market. The transaction is the first global note offering by NTT and the second recent SEC-registered global note offering by a Japanese issuer. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter acted as global coordinators on the deal advised by Sullivan & Cromwell.