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In Great Northern Insurance Co v Mount Vernon Fire Insurance Co, No. 97-7989, 1998 US App LEXIS 8413 (2d Cir May 1 1998), the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit certified a question to the New York Court of Appeals regarding the interpretation of the "other insurance" clause in a commercial general liability policy. The "other insurance" clause is a standard provision commonly found in commercial liability policies which typically comes into play when multiple insurance policies cover a single loss. It should apply only to disputes between insurance companies over how much each must pay for a particular loss. Great Northern gives New York's highest court the chance to confirm that "other insurance" clauses should not be employed to cut a policyholder's right to the full limit of an insurer's liability for a covered loss.

To promote Singapore as a centre for international capital fundraising, the government-appointed Corporate Finance Committee has proposed a radical new regulatory regime in a consultative paper, shifting the emphasis to a predominantly disclosure-based philosophy of regulation, similar to the US system. Key points include:

New Zealand's personal property securities law has long been criticized by lawyers and financiers as being overly complicated and lacking in certainty. The absence of an integrated registration system for charges over personal property has created confusion and the additional expense involved has proved a disincentive to the use of personal property assets as collateral for all types of financing facilities. These problems have arisen because New Zealand's personal property securities laws are set out in a number of different statutes which provide different systems of registration and different priority rules depending on the nature of the property, the type of legal entity giving the security and the form of the security itself.

The invitation to bid for the state telecoms companies was made available to the public on June 12 1998. For the auction, set for July 29 1998, the companies have been re-structured into three groups:

The China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) has recently become one of the busiest arbitration bodies in the world, having decided about 800 cases in 1997. Effective as of May 10 1998, the CIETAC Arbitration Rules were revised in response to political and legal developments as well as criticism concerning uncertainties under the previous CIETAC Arbitration Rules.

In April 1998 the government submitted a bill to parliament regarding a reform of the Finnish Companies Act to enable the conversion to the euro in private and public limited companies during the transition period between January 1 1999 and December 31 2001 and set the rules governing the move to no par value (NPV) shares in limited companies.

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

The changeover to the Euro will have a substantial impact on European price sources. The Fibor (Frankfurt Interbank Offered Rate), for example, will vanish from January 1 1999. On that date, one to 12 month Fibor rates will be replaced by one to 12 month Euribor rates (Euro Interbank Offered Rate), and the Fibor overnight rate will be replaced by the Eonia rate (Euro Overnight Index Average). Euribor and Eonia rates will be calculated on a daily basis using quotes from a maximum of 64 European banks, 12 of which are domiciled in Germany.