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The exodus of project finance lawyers from Chadbourne & Parke continues. Ian Johnson, a UK project finance lawyer in the firm's Singapore office, will join US firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe at the beginning of May. He is the third project finance lawyer to leave Chadbourne in the last six months. Johnson will initially work from Orrick's Singapore office but will relocate to London by early 1999. He will head the UK office with Orrick's present New York managing partner Michael Voldstad. In September, US partner Peter Cleary left Chadbourne's Hong Kong office for UK firm Freshfields. And at the end of last year Martin Stewart-Smith joined UK firm Cameron McKenna. Johnson's departure leaves the US firm with no UK partners. A spokesman for Chadbourne denies the project finance department is in turmoil, but head of department, Rigdon Boykin, has been replaced by Chaim Wachsberger.

Howard Trust, General Counsel, The Barclays Group, talks to Diana Bentley

Privatization and deregulation are creating a more modern business environment in Austria and law firms are under increasing pressure to provide a similarly modern service. Nick Ferguson writes

The OECD convention against corruption is a major step against bribery. But a totally fair market is still far off. By Michael Hershman of Decision Strategies/Fairfax International LLC, Falls Church, Virginia

The Czech government is beginning the slow process of rebuilding investor confidence. Further banking and funds reforms are planned. By Madle Waldvogel of Beiten Burkhardt Mittl & Wegener, Prague

The law of the country where a bank account is kept will usually govern the banker-customer contract. However, the law of another country may affect the account.

Foreign investment enterprises in the project finance field must now seek the same foreign exchange authorizations as domestic entities. By Edward Turner and Edward Lam of Shearman & Sterling, Hong Kong and London

On March 1 1998, the amendments to the 1989 EU Merger Regulation entered into force. For the details of the new regime see International Financial Law Review, June 1997, page 53.

Colombian companies are increasingly looking forward to expanding their capacity into new markets and increasing their local capacity. The merger of companies is a useful instrument to enhance this capacity.

On October 3 1997 a new Public Trading in Securities Act was published, which took effect on January 4 1998. The Act replaces the Securities Trading Act of 1991. The new Act provides, among other things, for a more detailed regulation of the field of derivatives transactions.