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Italy continues to attract foreign law firms with UK firm Ashurst Morris Crisp announcing a strategic alliance with Milan-based Negri-Clementi Montironi & Soci. The agreement, based on an equal relationship, involves reciprocal exclusive referrals. Ian Nisse, Ashurst's managing partner, says: "This alliance is strategically based and strongly client driven for both firms." Ashurst, with offices in Paris, Brussels and Frankfurt, is trying to build a pan-European partnership.

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:

Potential moratoria on payments of foreign currency to overseas persons need not necessarily worry exporters. They can structure to protect their interests. By Andrew O’Keeffe of Simmons & Simmons, London

• 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.

The demand for infrastructure improvement in South Africa exceeds the scope of the public sector. The opportunities for private sector finance are considerable. By Jabulani Mtshali of Deneys Reitz, Johannesburg

Quebec’s new Bill 181 amends the Civil Code to require registration of secured transactions. It has important implications for securitization. By Sterling Dietze of Stikeman, Elliott, Montreal

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

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 Court of Appeal has delivered a judgment of potentially major significance for auditors of group companies. The case arose from claims brought by the liquidators of three BCCI companies against their former auditors, Price Waterhouse and Ernst & Whinney. The Court held that the auditors of the holding company and of one operating subsidiary could owe a duty of care to another operating subsidiary of which they were not the appointed auditors.

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.