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On June 4 1998, Commissioner Karel Van Miert signed an agreement between the EU and the US on the application of positive comity principles in the enforcement of their competition laws. The Positive Comity Agreement provides that where a party is adversely affected by anti-competitive behaviour in the other's territory, it may request that other party to take appropriate action. The Agreement also provides that the parties may agree that the party requesting enforcement will defer or suspend its enforcement proceedings over the anti-competitive practice while it is investigated by the other party.

Mortgage banks were an important part of the Hungarian banking system until World War II. After a long break during the socialist era, mortgage banks have now been reintroduced in Hungary through Law No. XXX of 1997, which took effect on June 7 1997.

The 1992 Bankruptcy Law allowed Russian companies to continue to operate in an insolvent state. New legislation empowers the creditors. By Britt Shaw of McDermott, Will & Emery, Moscow

With projects often needing amendments or waivers from financiers, the use of project agents instead of trustees has been suggested for project bonds. Richard Forster reports

• US firm Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker is expanding its London office. Wayne McArdle, former chief counsel of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has joined the firm as a partner. McArdle is a corporate finance specialist, with significant experience in project finance transactions in central and eastern Europe. Corporate partner and securities specialist Joel Simon is also relocating from New York to London, along with a corporate associate.

Clifford Chance has scored a major coup by poaching US lawyer Bruce Bean from the Moscow office of Coudert Brothers where he was managing partner. A New York and California qualified corporate lawyer, Bean joins Clifford Chance as a partner in the firm's Moscow office, which is staffed by 57 lawyers, including five partners. With experience of advising multinationals on inward investment, advising investment banks on securities issues by Russian corporates and international oil and gas companies on their activities in the country, he will be in charge of developing the office's corporate and US multinational practices.

British company Computacenter has been floated on the London stock exchange, with a global offering of 44,304,014 ordinary shares, including a Rule 144A placing in the US. The value of the transaction was £1.15 billion (US$1.84 billion) with Goldman Sachs acting as global coordinator. UK firm Linklaters & Paines represented Computacenter. Partners Matthew Middleditch and Charlie Jacobs worked on the flotation, providing advice on English and US law. UK firm Freshfields acted for Goldman Sachs with a team headed by partners Christopher Joyce (corporate) and US partner Tom Joyce (finance).

New benchmarks in corporate loan securitization (collateralized loan obligations, or CLO) technology were set when the Structured Finance Group at the London branch of The Sumitomo Bank completed their Aurora CLO on April 8 1998. The £1.395 billion (US$ 2.3 billion) issue of floating rate notes by Aurora Funding was supported by a structure which:

Travelers Group, the US financial services group, has announced it is acquiring a 25% equity stake for US$1.6 billion in Nikko Securities, Japan's third largest broker. Nikko is also to conclude a joint venture with Travelers' investment banking arm, Salomon Smith Barney. The joint venture will be owned 51% by Nikko and 49% by Salomon Smith Barney. US firm Davis Polk & Wardwell is acting for Nikko. The team includes corporate partners Danfort Townley (Tokyo), Robert Levine (New York) and Jordan Luke (Washington), and counsel Theodore Paradise (Tokyo).

As the securities market increasingly adopts the Internet, the SEC has issued guidelines to help foreign securities companies avoid US registration. By Winthrop Brown of Shaw Pittman Potts & Trowbridge, Washington DC