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In December 1996, the Main Proposed Revisions to the Draft for the Composite Securities and Futures Bill were released by the Securities and Future Commission (SFC).

A provisionary measure on money-laundering came into force in September 1996 and a comprehensive law came into force in November. Turkey entered into agreements with Kazakstan, Poland, Egypt, Malaysia, China, India, Algeria and Mongolia for the avoidance of double taxation with respect to taxes on income. The Council of Ministers approved the entry of Turkey to the Cotton Advisory Committee.

On January 1 1997 a number of amendments to the Federal Act on Debt Collection and Insolvency of 1889 entered into force. The amendments are aimed at updating and clarifying the Act, without changing its structure. In the field of injunctions to freeze assets as a provisional remedy, three major modifications have been enacted with a view to improve the protection for the debtor and the third party holder of assets:

New procedure for UCIT authorizations

International Trade and Legal Services

Tax specialists are the best paid in-house counsel, according to a survey conducted jointly by US legal consulting firm Altman Weil Pensa and the American Corporate Counsel Association. The Law Department Compensation Benchmarking Survey examines the finances of US company legal departments, and reveals that the top earning specialities are tax, and mergers and acquisitions, for which an average in-house counsel receives about US$120,000. Almost half chief legal officers earned between US$200,000 and US$350,000, while nearly 10% earned more than US$500,000. But the departments continued to rely heavily on external firms, with each, on average, using about 48 firms in 1996. This cost departments an average of US$376,162 per lawyer. The highest paid external lawyers were specialists in personal injury defence, earning US$108,151, followed by general litigation lawyers, who received US$100,938. Mergers and acquisitions specialists and intellectual property lawyers earned US$88,985 and US$85,283 respectively.

The Polish government will decide the fate of foreign lawyers in a series of votes over the next few weeks. One proposal would restrict foreign law firms' ability to hire domestic lawyers and could require all foreign offices to be operated by Polish firms. But foreign firms should not worry yet, according to Stephen Denyer, partner at Allen & Overy in Warsaw and leader of a group formed by foreign lawyers in Poland. "Although the voting is soon, the government proposed this three-and-a-half years ago," he explains. "The legal regime here will definitely change. It will probably be necessary to have fully-qualified lawyers, and the Polish system will change. But the rules might just restrict foreign firms, rather than forcing foreign lawyers not to practise here."

The Turkish government has completed a US$630 million project financing of a power plant. The Marmara Ereglisi plant will supply power to utility Turkiye Elektrik Uretim ve Ticaret, under a 20-year agreement. The state gas company will supply natural gas. Financing is sponsored by a consortium of Enron Corporation and Wing International, the UK's Midlands Electricity, and Turkey's GAMA Endustri. Eximbank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Republic of Turkey are arranging the financing with a consortium of international commercial banks. Bankers Trust Company, ABNAmro and Bayerische Landesbank Girozentrale were lead lenders for the project.

The income tax liability of a recipient of profits on the disposal of assets has long been a grey area of income tax law. Problems arise when trying to distinguish between taxable income and non-taxable capital gains. The recent decision of the Privy Council in Rangatira Limited v The Commissioner of Inland Revenue provided an opportunity to clarify the law in this area. Hence the decision had been keenly awaited by the New Zealand investment market.

City firm Cameron Markby Hewitt and rival McKenna & Co have ended months of speculation by announcing that they are to merge. On December 17 the firms issued a statement that a new firm, Cameron McKenna, will open on May 1 1997. The firms elected Bill Shelford, senior partner of Cameron Markby Hewitt, as senior partner of the new firm. Managing partner will be Robert Derry-Evans, now managing partner of McKenna. The firm will be the eighth largest in the UK, with nine international offices. The firm will specialize in banking, property, corporate insurance, projects and commercial law.