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Because rules for bond allocations are not set in stone, most bankers and fund managers do not believe they are doing anything illegal, though some expressed misgivings about a practice they describe as more art than science.

A long boom, insatiable demand for what banks are selling, possible different treatment of the large and the small buyer. Any of it starting to sound familiar? Investigators like to stroll along the sand once the tide has gone out. Recall the look at initial public offering practices during the dot com era by Elliot Spitzer, for instance. But remember too the tendency in finance for an ethical line to be edged past in the search for advantage. At the time practices can seem merely aggressive, or cynical, but when attention turns to them much later it becomes obvious the line is now distant. Think the treatment of soft commissions, client entertaining, analysts saying one thing in public and another in private, libor or foreign exchange traders traders chatting, or naked shorting, for instance.

Which isn’t to say there is widespread bad behaviour in the bond market, far from it. Rather it is to point out how the cycles in these things go. As retail investors have piled into bond funds over the last decade, any market correction resulting in losses may prompt more attention on what is going on.

Do read the whole thing, but here’s another extract:

Speaking on condition of anonymity, several senior bankers said the largest bond managers exert disproportionate influence on the size and price of new debt sales. The behind-closed-doors process by which new corporate bonds are priced and then doled out to investors means that opportunities for questionable — though not necessarily illegal — behaviour exist, these bankers say.

Big bond funds that trade with a bank in the secondary market are more likely to receive a larger allocation of new debt deals underwritten by the firm — a classic case of quid pro quo behaviour, according to bankers. The most powerful bond funds are also able to alter the price of a debt deal, often pushing for new bonds to be sold at a wider, or more profitable, spread for investors, they add.

One former credit trader at a bank recalled keeping track of which clients do the most “favours” for the firm to ensure good allocations in desirable new deals. A former senior banker at a well-known US bank said more than two-thirds of the firm’s credit trading revenues were tied to its underwriting business. Others described their competitors creating fake orders to get more bonds that could then be given to their biggest clients.

A former syndicate banker at a large US bank described being goaded by a sales manager to alter the pricing of a bond offering to satisfy a powerful buyside client: “Then I have to basically lie to the issuer and tell them they can’t get a better deal. One time, I even had to modify the limits in an order book that they requested to make it look like a tighter deal wasn’t in the cards.”

Bankers would “rather allocate to the big guys at a wider level than smaller guys at a tighter level”, says David Schawel, portfolio manager at Square 1 Bank.

As Tracy and Mike point out, the SEC devotes half of one person’s time to corporate bonds, versus more than 100 focused on the stock market. For anyone feeling uncomfortable in the water, it might be a good idea to get out early.

GM Plans Share Buyback, Averting Proxy Fight

Investor Harry J. Wilson to drop request to join board in light of repurchase plan

General Motors Co. as soon as Monday will disclose plans to return billions of dollars to shareholders, a move that is expected to avoid a potential proxy fight with investor Harry J. Wilson, said people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Wilson will drop a previous request to join the Detroit auto maker’s board in light of the buyback plan, the people said. GM plans to repurchase shares over time in an amount less than the $8 billion Mr. Wilson previously proposed, they said. The size of the buyback and its time frame couldn’t be learned.

Mr. Wilson in February put GM on notice that he intended to nominate himself for a board seat at the company’s upcoming annual meeting and propose an $8 billion stock buyback. Mr. Wilson has criticized GM’s stock price, cash management and operating performance.

Mr. Wilson and hedge funds backing him have held discussions with GM representatives over the past several weeks, according to people familiar with the matter, culminating in talks over the weekend that led both sides to reach a deal that is expected to avoid acrimony, at least in the short term.

GM’s board likely needed to decide soon whether to put Mr. Wilson in its proxy to have ballot materials ready before the company’s annual meeting, which could take place as soon as June. A rejection, or lack of some kind of settlement, could have led Mr. Wilson to mount a proxy fight.

Last week, Mr. Wilson beat back criticism over a compensation arrangement with hedge funds that are backing him related to his possible service on GM’s board. He could receive anywhere from 2% to 4% of the upside of their GM shares over three years. Mr. Wilson owns about 30,000 GM shares, while the funds backing him collectively own more than 30 million, or about 2% of the shares outstanding.

Mr. Wilson, among the architects of GM’s 2009 government bailout and bankruptcy restructuring, last week was criticized by Warren Buffett , who suggested the pay arrangement created a short-term incentive. “It’s just not the way to run a business,” said Mr. Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is a GM shareholder, on CNBC. Mr. Wilson responded that he has held GM stock since 2011 and expects to for many years, and is willing to lock up any payouts in GM stock “for an extended period of time.”

Such compensation deals have sparked controversy at other companies including Dow Chemical Co. Many company executives and advisers deride the practice as a “golden leash” that compromises independence and a director’s duty to serve all shareholders and weigh the long-term.

Activist investors contend such payouts motivate their director selections to shake up boardrooms and increase value for all shareholders.

Mr. Wilson ended up on the board of Sotheby’s last year as part of activist investor Daniel Loeb ’s settlement with the auction house for three board seats. Domenico De Sole, lead independent director at Sotheby’s, bemoaned the proxy fight. “I thought it was an unfortunate expenditure of money for someone who turned out to be an exemplary board member,” said Mr. De Sole, a former Gucci chief executive. He said Mr. Wilson “really knows how to draw the line between governing and managing” and can work with executives without overstepping boundaries.

Steve Wolosky, a partner at law firm Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP who represents activist investors, says Mr. Wilson’s compensation is justified and his offer to lock up any payments “clearly evidences his long-term commitment to improving value at GM.” Mr. Buffett later during the CNBC interview said: “If Harry has a ton of stock himself that he’s going to put away for a long period of time, that’s one thing.”

Still, some management lawyers find Mr. Wilson’s deal problematic.

“I don’t care how long he locks up the payouts,” said Avrohom J. Kess, a partner at Simpson Thacher Bartlett LLP. He said Mr. Wilson instead should defer any payments unless GM’s stock is up a decade from now. “That’s putting your money where your mouth is.”

The pay agreements are sometimes fraught but have improved over the years, said Robert Jackson, a Columbia University Law School professor. The debate over Mr. Wilson’s arrangement “is a bit of a red herring,” he said, adding that three-year compensation horizons for directors are “absolutely standard.”

- Company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire RTI International Metals, Inc. (NYSE:RTI), a global supplier of titanium and specialty metal products and services for the commercial aerospace, defense, energy and medical device markets.

- Expected to contribute $1.2 billion in revenues in 2019, up from $794 million generated in 2014; RTIs profitability expected to reach 25 percent EBITDA margin in 2019, up from 14.5 percent in 2014

- Alcoa will acquire all outstanding shares of RTI in a stock-for-stock transaction. RTI shareholders will receive 2.8315 Alcoa shares for each RTI share, representing a value of $41 per RTI share based on Alcoas closing price on March 6, 2015. The transaction has an enterprise value of $1.5 billion, including $330 million of RTI cash on hand and up to $517 million in RTIs convertible notes.

Germany: E2.474bln

France: E1.949bln

Italy: E1.692bln

Spain: E1.215bln

Netherlands: E550mln

Belgium: E341mln

Austria: E270mln

Portugal: E240mln

Finland: E173mln

Ireland: E160mln

Japan-Focused Hedge Fund Arena Capital Shuts Down

Arena Capital founder Toby Bartlett to join Hong Kong’s Lim Advisors

Toby Bartlett last month closed down his Hong Kong-based Arena Capital Management Ltd. and returned money to investors, according to a person familiar with the matter. The fund, which focused on the consumer sector, was set up in mid-2012 and had roughly $50 million under management when it was closed, the person said.

Hedge funds, which tout their ability to make money in good times and bad, have long had a low rate of survival. Smaller fund operators though are facing an even greater challenge with regulatory costs on the rise and large investors more insistent that funds put in place sophisticated operations before they make an investment.

“Investors are demanding more from potential early stage partners, including a solid pedigree, a track record of success running a similar strategy (preferably with the same team), strong operational experience, and sound business management skills,” Deutsche Bank AG said this month in its annual survey of hedge-fund investors. Nearly a third of respondents that said they are willing to invest in a hedge fund within its first six months also said they would require the fund to have an average $175 million under management.

Mr. Bartlett previously worked as a portfolio manager at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.-owned Highbridge Capital Management in Hong Kong and Citadel Investment Group in Japan. He will join George Long ’s Lim Advisors Ltd. in Hong Kong in early April, bringing with him a team of two analysts, Ayumu Kuroda and Yukimi Oda, who will work in Lim’s Hong Kong and Tokyo offices respectively, the person said.

Founded by Mr. Long in 1995, Lim is one of the region’s oldest hedge-fund operators with a history that predates the late-90’s Asian financial crisis. The $2 billion firm principally manages credit and stock strategies and has historically dedicated a significant share of its assets toward investments in Japan, including through a stand-alone Japan fund.

“Toby brings deep experience, broadening Lim’s Japan investment resources,” said Matthew Whitehead, Lim’s head of investor relations. “We expect Japan to continue to provide great opportunities for alpha strategies and the appointments will help Lim take advantage of these to generate higher returns for our investors.”

Hedge funds investing in Asia excluding Japan outperformed their global peers for the third straight year in 2014, with funds tracked by data provider Eurekahedge posting an average 9.4% return. Returns for Japan-focused funds were more muted with a 6.2% return, matching North American fund returns and exceeding a 1.2% gain for European funds.

Investors have taken note. Thirty-percent of respondents in the Deutsche survey said they plan to increase investments in Asian managers over the next 12 months, a sharp jump from 19% with those plans last year.

A unit of U.K.-based hedge-fund manager Man Group PLC in early 2013 announced what is known as a “seed deal” with Arena, an agreement where investors provide starter capital to new hedge funds in exchange for a portion of their fees. A spokeswoman for Man Group on Monday didn’t reply to a request for comment on the relationship.

Telecom Industry Bets on 5G

Telcoms and networking firms test requirements for fifth generation wireless networks

BARCELONA—Telecoms and networking giants are placing a bet on fifth-generation wireless networks in a bid to fend off an assault by Internet companies that threaten their core business of connecting the masses.

Their main problem? The industry hasn’t quite figured out what fifth-generation infrastructure, or 5G, is yet.

Tom Wheeler, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission described the uncertainty last week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, saying 5G was like a painting by artist Pablo Picasso.

“I see something different from what you see,” Mr. Wheeler said in a keynote at the annual trade show for the telecom and tech industries. “I think that is where 5G is right now.”

Yet telecoms and networking firms from across the world, including AT&T Inc., Sweden’s Ericsson Telefon AB, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom , and China’s Huawei Technologies Co., are scrambling to paint a joint picture of what they hope will be the next generation of wireless network, even as much of the world is still rolling out the latest standard, called 4G.

Collaborating groups of U.S., European and Asian telcos, network equipment makers and research groups published two white papers on 5G last week at the congress, outlining a mobile future that moves beyond purely faster download speeds. The industry urgently needs to pool knowledge in development of 5G amid the threat of Internet companies, telecoms executives say.

Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. are now laying broadband fiber cables, creating mobile wireless networks, and potentially beaming Internet to the developing world through drones and balloons.

“There is an urgency to cooperate more than in the past,” Ulf Ewaldsson, chief technology officer at Ericsson, said in an interview at the congress. “The threats for this industry come from others who want to eat the cake of the operators.”

Google and Facebook declined to comment.

Through research and development, telecoms executives hope to achieve a number of technical metrics that can spur technological advancements in other sectors. The industry aims to achieve a latency rate, or the speed at which two devices communicate with each other, of roughly one millisecond, from about 50 milliseconds for 4G. A reaction speed of one millisecond would enable driverless cars that could avoid potential accidents with other vehicles. Ultralow latency could also allow a doctor sitting in a hospital to conduct surgery at the scene of an accident via robotics.

Telecoms operators also want to run more reliable networks when customers are traveling at speeds of roughly 300 miles an hour, allowing connectivity on high-speed trains. They aim to reach peak data transmission speeds of 10 gigabits per second for 5G, thousands of times faster than current 4G speeds experienced by average users. At those rates, high-definition videos could be downloaded within seconds.

At the moment, however, the technology isn’t there.

Korean telco KT Corp. , in partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. , recently achieved data transmission speeds of 7.5Gbps in a test environment. Both Ericsson and Nokia Corp. ’s Networks business have been testing speeds above 2Gbps. Huawei in November invested £5 million ($7.5 million) in the University of Surrey’s 5G Innovation Centre in the U.K., which has also been testing ultrafast data rates on a small scale.

“We are going to have to work together with other people, European and Japanese,” said Changsoon Choi, a senior research manager at South Korea’s SK Telecom Co., which has been testing speeds for 5G with Nokia Networks.

Huawei, Nokia Networks and Ericsson have all joined with with telecoms operators from around the world in recent weeks to jointly research technical metrics for 5G. KT showcased ambitious plans last week at MWC to launch 5G when the country hosts the Winter Olympics in 2018. Japan also aims to offer 5G at the summer Olympics in 2020.

“There is still a lot to do,” U.S. chip maker Qualcomm Inc. ’s chief executive Steve Mollenkopf said at MWC. “The debate is when do we call it 5G.”

France’s Hollande Casts Fate With Ex-Banker Macron

As the French president shifts away from tax-the-rich policies, economy minister Emmanuel Macron vows to be ‘more confrontational’

French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron got an earful in January from U.S. technology and retail executives as they lectured him in a meeting at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas about France’s inhospitable business reputation.

They complained that the government meddles too much, the labor market is too rule-bound and corporate taxes are onerous, including a two-year 75% tax on salaries of more than €1 million ($1.1 million) imposed by President François Hollande after his election in 2012.

The 37-year-old Mr. Macron, a former investment banker who became France’s top economic official last August, folded his hands prayer-like and then responded with the message he had flown from Paris to deliver: “I agree with everything.”

He added: “I think the 75% tax was a big mistake.”

Mr. Macron’s dig at his own boss was no slip of the tongue. For years, he prodded Mr. Hollande and his ruling Socialist Party to carry out a long-delayed modernization of France’s economy, the eurozone’s second largest. Now the French president is staking his government’s survival on Mr. Macron’s agenda.

In February, Mr. Hollande pushed economic overhauls designed by Mr. Macron—and known as the “Macron Law”—past the lower house of Parliament. Opposition from the president’s own party was so fierce that Mr. Hollande invoked special constitutional powers to bypass the National Assembly, the first use of that maneuver in nearly a decade.

Angry lawmakers retaliated by subjecting Mr. Hollande’s government to a no-confidence vote. While the vote failed, it underscored the divisions laid bare by the French president’s decision to shed the consensus-building style that swept him into office but made him a sluggish economic reformer.

Under growing pressure

France is under growing pressure from officials in Brussels and Berlin to make structural changes to the sclerotic labor rules and red tape that have contributed to making the French economy a millstone for eurozone growth. In last year’s fourth quarter, gross domestic product grew just 0.1% in France, compared with 0.7% in Germany.

By backing Mr. Macron, Mr. Hollande is turning away from his past as an apparatchik who focused on appeasing the Socialist Party’s left with tax-the-rich policies and employment programs that stretched France’s finances, such as job subsidies for more than 150,000 young people.

It is increasingly clear that the French leader has decided to cast his political fate with European governments, led by Germany, that view entitlements and job protection as causes of economic inertia.

“I’m happy,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said while standing beside Mr. Hollande in Paris three days after he strong-armed the French parliament. “It shows France has the ability to act.” A close aide to Mr. Hollande said he wasn’t available to comment for this article.

European Union officials want him to go much further, by relaxing labor regulations that restrict companies from firing workers and hiring new blood. That puts Mr. Hollande on a collision course with his own party.

In interviews with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Macron said he is planning to strengthen his namesake legislation in ways that are likely to widen the divide. For example, he wants to allow companies to sidestep rigid labor rules and negotiate directly with employees, a move that could tread on France’s hallowed 35-hour workweek.

“You have to be more confrontational,” he says. The Senate is likely to start reviewing the legislation in April.

Mr. Macron’s rise from behind-the-scenes campaign adviser to architect and public champion of Mr. Hollande’s shift has alarmed the Socialist Party’s rank and file. Mr. Macron has never held elected office and has shown disdain for the political horse-trading often needed to win over lawmakers.

Those facts have deepened his rift with backbenchers, who also cast Mr. Macron as an elitist out of touch with the working-class identity of French socialism. “Some part of him lacks the human touch,” says Jean-Marc Germain, a Socialist lawmaker.

The Macron Law “is devastating to our principles because it annihilates much of what we stand for as Socialists,” he adds.

Still, Mr. Macron has clearly won over the French socialist who matters most: Mr. Hollande. The bond took root years before he rose to power as president—and has persevered through the tumult in Parliament, says the aide to Mr. Hollande.

Mr. Macron is deft at cultivating admirers in high places, according to people who have mentored him over the years. He deployed those skills while nurturing a relationship with Mr. Hollande, 60, standing by the politician even when they disagreed privately. The reason: Mr. Macron believed the president would eventually come around.

“It’s sort of an implicit deal: If I disagree, to always tell him I disagree,” Mr. Macron recalls. “Sometimes we fought.”

Born to a family of medical doctors in the northern French town of Amiens, Mr. Macron met his future wife, Brigitte Trogneux, while he was in high school and she was his drama coach. He starred in a play organized by Ms. Trogneux, who is 20 years older than Mr. Macron, and they moved in together a couple of years later.

Mr. Macron gained entry to the halls of power after his acceptance into the École Nationale d’Administration, a highly selective school that counts numerous presidents among its alumni, including Mr. Hollande.

As one of the top graduates in 2004, Mr. Macron secured a coveted post inside the Inspection Générale Des Finances, an elite cadre of civil servants that audits government agencies and informally serves as the finishing school for France’s leadership class.

“The aristocracy of the aristocracy,” says Alain Minc, a prominent businessman. “It’s a power-broker system.”

While there, Mr. Macron made a point of introducing himself to the unit’s most prominent former inspectors, including Mr. Minc and former Prime Minister Michel Rocard. Mr. Macron talked about politics with Mr. Minc and derivatives with Mr. Rocard. “He’s a good teacher,” Mr. Rocard recalls.

Mr. Hollande met Mr. Macron at a 2008 dinner hosted by Jacques Attali, a high-level aide to President François Mitterrand in the 1980s. Mr. Attali had taken Mr. Macron under his wing, recruiting him to coordinate a special commission created by then-President Nicolas Sarkozy to recommend pro-business reforms.

Over dinner, Mr. Hollande asked Mr. Macron if he wanted to run for office. Mr. Macron wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to become beholden to machine politics. Instead, he volunteered to become a behind-the-scenes adviser.

At the time, Mr. Hollande’s political fortunes were waning. The Socialist Party passed him over by nominating Ségolène Royal to challenge Mr. Sarkozy in 2007. After she lost, party leaders set their sights on Dominique Strauss-Kahn , then managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

Mr. Macron stood by Mr. Hollande, which cemented their ties. “That is the core of his personal relation with Hollande,” says Mr. Minc.

In 2011, Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s candidacy collapsed amid a sex scandal. Mr. Hollande was suddenly a presidential contender, and he wanted advice on how to shake up France’s economy.

Mr. Macron convened top economists at La Rotonde, his favorite Parisian brasserie, and eventually hashed out a 200-page economic plan for Mr. Hollande. In a departure from Socialist Party ideology, the confidential document put forth a slate of “pro-industry” reforms, Mr. Macron recalls.

“He speaks plainly. No taboos,” says Jean Pisani-Ferry, an economist who attended the sessions. The aide to Mr. Hollande says the document laid the foundation for his pro-business turn.

The takeover made Mr. Macron wealthy and taught him how to curry favor in a risk-averse corporate culture. “You’re sort of a prostitute,” he says. “Seduction is the job.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Hollande faced pressure in a tight election campaign to reassure his Socialist Party base. In January 2012, he delivered a barnstorming speech that warned of a “nameless, faceless” menace to France.

“This enemy is the world of finance,” Mr. Hollande told a cheering crowd. Behind the scenes, he dispatched Mr. Macron to London to reassure investors that the presidential candidate wasn’t a hard-liner.

The two men clashed when Mr. Hollande vowed to levy the 75% tax on salaries of more than one million euros. Mr. Macron fired off an email to Mr. Hollande, hoping to steer him to a softer stance: “This is Cuba without the sun!”

After his election, lawmakers approved the tax, and Mr. Hollande stocked his cabinet with left-wing Socialist Party members. Arnaud Montebourg, who regarded government as a guardian against corporate takeovers by foreigners, was named France’s industry minister.

But in a sign of Mr. Hollande’s determination to balance competing interests, the new president hired Mr. Macron as his deputy chief of staff and primary conduit to the business world.

Under pressure from the European Union to balance public finances, Mr. Hollande announced €7.2 billion in additional taxes on companies and wealthy people—and then raised the tax bill by €20 billion.

A business rebellion

French business owners rebelled. They protested the plan publicly, and layoffs pushed France’s unemployment rate above 10%. Mr. Macron urged Mr. Hollande to change tack, and the president unveiled corporate tax credits of €20 billion in November 2012. Mr. Macron later convinced Mr. Hollande to double the tax breaks despite criticism from the left.

Mr. Macron also confronted Mr. Montebourg over his attempt to engineer a merger between French engineering firm Alstom SA and German rival Siemens AG . Mr. Montebourg wanted to stop U.S.-based General Electric Co. from buying Alstom’s core turbine business.

In a June 2013 meeting at the Élysée Palace, Mr. Macron told Mr. Montebourg, who had been promoted to economy minister: “You can block a marriage, but you cannot force a marriage.”

Mr. Montebourg relented. The next day, the French government backed GE’s proposed $17 billion acquisition. A spokesman for Mr. Montebourg didn’t make him available to comment.

Despite Mr. Macron’s willingness to challenge heavyweights of the Socialist Party, he left Mr. Hollande’s administration to launch an Internet startup. His plans changed when the French president telephoned in August 2014 with an urgent offer.

Mr. Hollande fired Mr. Montebourg and two other ministers for opposing cuts to government spending. It was a stunning rebuke of the rebellious left. Mr. Hollande promised the economic minister’s job to Mr. Macron if he wanted it.

Mr. Macron said he wanted a clear mandate from Mr. Hollande to overhaul the economy. Mr. Hollande replied: “You will be here to reform.” An hour later, Mr. Macron accepted the job.

January’s trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showed how Mr. Macron is trying to win over leaders of companies with little or no presence in France because of its high taxes and work rules that make it hard to fire employees. He invited the executives to a follow-up dinner with Mr. Hollande this fall at the Louvre.

Back in Paris, Mr. Macron tried to soothe lawmakers who opposed proposed reforms ranging from looser Sunday restrictions on retail shops and easier layoff procedures to lower notary fees and faster court rulings on labor disputes.

Mr. Hollande tried to play down the conflict, saying the Macron Law was “not the law of the century.” Mr. Macron expected the changes to pass by a slim but reliable majority.

His mood soon changed. At 1 a.m. on Valentine’s Day, Mr. Macron met Socialist Party baron Benoît Hamon, who was fired as education minister in the shake-up that made Mr. Macron economy minister.

While the two men had drinks at the bar of the National Assembly, Mr. Hamon made a quid pro quo offer: Socialist Party lawmakers would support Mr. Macron if the legislation included a nationwide increase in pay rates for Sunday workers.

“I would have ensured there was a majority,” Mr. Hamon says. “I didn’t want to go to war.” The next day, Mr. Macron delivered his answer in a heated address to the lower house. “I’m sorry, but I’m not open to shallow compromises to justify a vote,” he told lawmakers.

To rescue the bill, Mr. Macron and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls decided to ask Mr. Hollande to summon cabinet members and seek authorization to use Article 49, which allows legislation to proceed to the Senate. “We are short of a majority,” Mr. Valls told the president.

Using the constitutional powers subjected Mr. Hollande to the no-confidence vote that could have brought down his government. Divisions among Mr. Hollande and his own party now run so deep that the government “may well struggle to pass any additional measures during the remainder of its mandate,” says Sarah Carlson, a senior analyst at Moody’s Investors Service.

Mr. Macron disagrees. He says the government feels freer to plow ahead with its economic-overhaul plan because it can go around the lower house if lawmakers refuse to compromise.

His newest ideas include giving companies and employees greater leeway to negotiate waivers on national rules for working hours and salaries. “My wish, my willingness is to go further with this law,” he says.