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Investors in Barings, the collapsed merchant bank, face further litigation after liquidators blew cold on the City Disputes Panel's (CDP) compensation plan. The City's arbitration service put together the package during three years of negotiations after rogue trader Nick Leeson lost $800million gambling on the Hong Kong and Osaka stock markets, forcing the bank to fold. The panel's package sought to compensate holders of Barings' $150 million floating rate notes, issued in 1986. The agreed package offered $85 million, put up by ING, the former directors of Barings and its former auditors Coopers & Lybrand and Deloitte & Touche. ING bought Baring for £1 in 1995. The majority of the '86 noteholders are so-called vulture funds, specialist traders of distressed debt, who have bought up the bonds with the hope of increasing the compensation award.

US law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe acted as US legal advisers and US tax advisers to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on the launch of its $2 billion 10-year global bond. Partners Christopher Moore and Carl Lyon led the team for Orrick Herrington. The TVA had planned to raise $1 billion, but poor US employment figures issued early on launch day led to strong bond trading and encouraged the TVA to increase the size of the issue. Proceeds from the bond issue will be used to help repay debt owed by the TVA to the US Treasury. In October, the TVA gained the approval of Congress to raise $3.2 billion in Federal Financing Bank (FFB) debt. The new issue is expected to be listed on the New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and Luxembourg stock exchanges.

In October 1990, the defendant telephoned the plaintiff, convincing him to invest in futures options. After the plaintiff had signed an investment contract, the defendant began to trade in put and call options for the plaintiff, charging $300 in commission for each transaction. This led to remarkably high commissions. As the plaintiff's two accounts began to depreciate steadily, he ordered the defendant to close them. Subsequently, he sued the defendant claiming all his money back.

Recent developments in Spanish company law will favour access by Spanish companies to new financial mechanisms. One of these developments relates to the possibility for Spanish companies — previously not recognized by law — to issue redeemable shares (acciones rescatables), as an instrument through which the company may obtain additional funds for a limited time. This type of share represents an intermediate between fixed-income and variable-income securities. The main features of this new regime are as follows:

As Russia's economic and financial crisis continues, there have been a number of important legislative and policy developments, including the following:

On July 1 1998 Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) approved Resolution No. 11522 introducing new rules for intermediaries. The rules describe the procedure to be followed by an EU investment company to obtain authorization from the Italian authorities to offer in Italy services not admitted to mutual recognition.

On October 21 1998, the ministry of finance adopted a new regulation on the valuation of receivables, investments and contingency liabilities as well as of the contractual guarantees of credit institutions. Until then, these issues had been regulated through instructions by the banking supervisory authority which ceased to exist in 1997 and was replaced by the Money and Capital Market Supervisory Authority. These instructions have now been overruled by the new regulation entering into force on November 5 1998.

On October 12 1998, Deutsche Börse began step two of its electronic trading system: Xetra Release 3. All of the 2,000 or so German and foreign stocks listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as well as 360 bonds and 28 equity warrants may now be traded electronically. British securities are excluded from trading on Xetra because all market participants of Deutsche Börse may trade British securities on the London Stock Exchange by means of its electronic trading system SETS from January 1999.

The ministry of finance submitted a government bill on amending the Finnish Securities Market Act to parliament in October 1998.

New Personal Property Securities legislation will soon be introduced to parliament. It has been described as New Zealand's most significant commercial law reform since the 1993 Companies legislation, and the change is long overdue; New Zealand's existing securities law is a confusing mixture of common law and various statutory rules. It is likely that the new legislation will be based largely on North American precedents and that it will replace not only the various existing statutes, but also the equitable and common law rules regulating the priorities of competing securities. The overriding intention is that all forms of security should be regulated in the same manner, and that the same rules should apply whether the debtor is an individual or a company. Further details regarding this important change will be reported on in a later edition.