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Charles Toy, vice president and general counsel of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Washington DC, talks to Richard Forster

The Central Bank of Russia recently issued Instructions giving foreign investors greater scope to invest in rouble-denominated bonds. By Mira Davidovski and Robert Chernoff of Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn, Paris and Moscow

Since UK firm Allen & Overy announced the appointment of David Slade as a project finance partner in the New York office (see Insides, IFLRev, October), three other lawyers have joined Slade at Allen & Overy, effectively wiping out the Russian practice of US firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.

With small home markets, Benelux lawyers have been among the first in Europe to consider cross-border mergers and alliances. Their successes will be a model for others to follow. Paul Lee reports

Following the debate launched earlier this year by the Commission's Green Paper on the review of the Merger Regulation, the Commission has published two proposals for revision of the Regulation, which it has submitted to the Council of Ministers for discussion. One of these, containing the Commission's more controversial proposals concerning reduction of the 'Community dimension' thresholds, is capable of adoption by qualified majority, as envisaged in the existing Regulation. The other proposal, which requires the unanimous agreement of the member states, contains a number of improvements to the Regulation which are likely to be less controversial.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is reviewing comments from brokers, practitioners and other members of the public on its Draft for a Composite Securities and Futures Bill (Draft Bill) issued in April 1996. The Draft Bill aims to consolidate the present regulatory regime, embodied in not less than 11 Ordinances governing the securities industry, into a single user-friendly composite bill. After reviewing comments and suggestions from the public, the SFC is expected to redraft the Draft Bill and submit it to the Legislative Council for consideration in this legislative session.

On September 11 the Bankruptcy Legislation Amendment Bill 1996 passed the House of Representatives in amended form. Key provisions contained in the Bill include:

The Council of Ministers issued a Regulation, effective from August 31 1996, aimed at the detection of money-laundering activities. Turkish banks and branches in Turkey of foreign banks are obliged to determine the identities of persons engaged in any transaction exceeding TL1 million (US$11,000). The amount will be reviewed every year in January by the Undersecretariat of Treasury in light of changes in the Wholesale Price Index.

On October 1 1996 a fully revised set of rules on the listing of securities on the Swiss Stock Exchange (the New Listing Regulations) came into effect. The primary goal of the revision was to anticipate the guidelines of the Federal Code on Stock Exchanges and Securities Trading, expected to be enacted by January 1 1997 and to assimilate the listing rules to 'international standards', ie, in particular, the EU directives on the reporting duties of issuers.

Douglas A Doetsch of Mayer, Brown & Platt, Chicago, looks in detail at one of the most vigorous and innovative sectors of the capital markets and its particular usefulness in Latin America and other emerging jurisdictions