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Fresh regulations aimed at standardizing processes in the financial sector have created poorly defined compliance rules and have resulted in increased IT spend, according to research published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for Changepoint, a provider of governance and business IT software. The report concludes that billions in investment will be necessary to comply with regulations ? such as Basel II ? and that 59% of respondents to the EIU research are investing heavily in existing IT systems with a further 34% planning on acquiring new IT systems.

Newly released research from Deloitte & Touche LLP, finds that while most companies have taken the initial steps toward establishing a code of ethics, a limited number are actively monitoring adherence to the programs. In a detailed questionnaire sent to 5,000 directors of the top 4,000 publicly traded companies, Deloitte determined that 83% of the firms responding have established formal codes of ethics and conduct, but 25% are not actively monitoring compliance.

International law firm Allen & Overy has promoted five associates to partner in its global corporate practice, effective May 1, as part of a larger drive to strengthen the practice and expand globally.

Investors are set to be happily surprised by the strength of company earnings which will sustain stock markets while strong economic data confirms the continued caution surrounding corporate bonds, according to analysts at Standard Life Investments. Productivity and profitability, according to Standard Life, provide the positive factors in its quarterly outlook.

Executive compensation has emerged as the top corporate governance issue this proxy season. Compensation panels are being scrutinized at unprecedented levels and shareholders are voting "no" on them when a disconnect between pay and performance is observed.

The attorneys for former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy - on trial on charges related to the company's $2.7 billion accounting scandal - have asked a judge to throw out 78 out of the 85 criminal charges against Scrushy and have said that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is vague and its use in this case is unconstitutional.

Linklaters has hired 15 new finance partners to boost its global finance practice.

Microsoft is now offering full availability of its BizTalk Accelerator for SWIFT, a software solution that supports SWIFT messaging for securities and banking transactions. The Accelerator supports SWIFT's connetivity interfaces and SWIFT messages, both FIN and Extensible Markup Language (XML).

The largest ever mortgage-backed securitization worth up to £6.2 billion ($11.2 billion) has been performed by Halifax, the UK mortgage provider. Oversubscribed despite the absence of traditional IR presentations to investors, the issuance was delivered through sterling, euro and the US dollar and constituted 19 different note classes.

The inflation-linked market has unexpected pockets of demand, few natural issuers and an unusually close relationship between derivatives and bonds. But it works. Banks now need to work out where the next set of structural demand will come from and how to position themselves to profit from it. Katie Martin reports

A ground-breaking collateralized debt obligation offering a fixed level of recoveries targets investors who want a simpler structure.

The first investor poll to determine the best liquidity providers by asset class in Europe’s credit markets shows JPMorgan sweeping the board.