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Cyprus has attracted offshore enterprises from almost 100 countries, and in the past few years Europe has been the main source of new company registrations. In the first half of 1997, 79.2% of the registrations originated from Europe, 12.9% from America, 5.5% from Asia, 1.7% from Africa and 0.7% from Australia.

To carry out proper due diligence as required by Colombian law, the following general guidelines on corporate duties, government permits, labour matters and taxation should be followed.

Until now, investments made by Spanish Collective Investment Institutions (IICs) in derivatives were regulated by the provisions of the Order of July 6 1992. This rule allowed such institutions to invest in derivatives traded on organized secondary markets both in Spain and in other countries.

The Hungarian Ministry of Justice has introduced a bill for a new Law on Economic Associations (Companies Act). The planned law would serve the purpose of further harmonizing Hungarian company law with EU rules by establishing western standards. Furthermore, the experience of the past few years has confirmed the need for a new law. Since the Companies Act came into force on January 1 1989, the law has been shown to have numerous loopholes and to be wide open to abuse. The bill attempts to address these faults.

In 1994, the Danish Consumer Ombudsman, after consultations with the Bankers' Association, issued ethical guidelines for financial institutions' advice to individual customers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Argentina (the CNV) enacted General Resolution No. 291/97. This authorizes the trading in Argentina of depositary receipts representing securities issued by foreign entities not qualified by the CNV to offer their securities directly to the general public in Argentina. The new regime — which comes into force on September 1 1997 — attempts to introduce new financial products in the local markets and to attract foreign investors.

Under Swedish legislation (12:2 of the Companies Act), a Swedish company may not pay a dividend to its shareholders exceeding the free equity as shown in the most recent balance sheet adopted. Even within the free equity, a dividend may not be paid if it contravenes good business practice as dictated by the company's or group's capitalization, cash position or general financial situation.

McDonald & Hayden, Toronto

Partnership Property Management, a consortium led by Goldman Sachs, was chosen to take over the UK Department of Social Security's 700 properties. This deal, known as Project Prime, is the largest Private Finance Initiative transaction to date with a total value of £4 billion (US$6 billion)

International Bar Association