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Last summer, the Lloyd's of London restructuring plan came under attack by a large group of US names (as individual investors are referred to in the Lloyd's market). The US names charged Lloyd's with various fraudulent practices and violations of US securities laws.

Following the debate launched earlier this year by the Commission's Green Paper on the review of the Merger Regulation, the Commission has published two proposals for revision of the Regulation, which it has submitted to the Council of Ministers for discussion. One of these, containing the Commission's more controversial proposals concerning reduction of the 'Community dimension' thresholds, is capable of adoption by qualified majority, as envisaged in the existing Regulation. The other proposal, which requires the unanimous agreement of the member states, contains a number of improvements to the Regulation which are likely to be less controversial.

The Council of Ministers issued a Regulation, effective from August 31 1996, aimed at the detection of money-laundering activities. Turkish banks and branches in Turkey of foreign banks are obliged to determine the identities of persons engaged in any transaction exceeding TL1 million (US$11,000). The amount will be reviewed every year in January by the Undersecretariat of Treasury in light of changes in the Wholesale Price Index.

On October 1 1996 a fully revised set of rules on the listing of securities on the Swiss Stock Exchange (the New Listing Regulations) came into effect. The primary goal of the revision was to anticipate the guidelines of the Federal Code on Stock Exchanges and Securities Trading, expected to be enacted by January 1 1997 and to assimilate the listing rules to 'international standards', ie, in particular, the EU directives on the reporting duties of issuers.

The state reinsurance monopoly has now been lifted with the enactment of Constitutional Amendment No. 13 of August 21 1996. In accordance with the new wording of Article 192, II of the Constitution, licensing requirements and other conditions applicable to reinsurance shall be regulated in a complementary law. There are at present two bills on the subject being examined in Congress.

In September, the Stock Exchange Committee of the Botswana Stock Exchange approved new 'Procedures for Listing and General Requirements for Listed Companies'. As adopted, the Procedures and General Requirements contain:

Arbitration is an increasingly popular form of dispute resolution. The recent Act for England and Wales boosts London's position. By David Wyld and Simon Nurney of Macfarlanes, London

The Italian Treasury is selling a further tranche of shares in the oil and gas company ENI with a L5.1 trillion (US$3.36 billion) international offering, part of Italy's largest privatization. The sale of the 8.75% stake in the company is being jointly led by Istituto Mobiliare Italiano and CS First Boston.

Uncertainty over the Brazilian's state's right to control the domestic insurance industry appears to have been temporarily resolved – to the advantage of foreign insurance firms. By Manoel Ignácio Torres Monteiro of Amaro, Stuber e Advogados Associados, São Paulo

UK firm Amhurst Brown Colombotti has spoken to IFLRev following reports that the firm has transferred its Italian law department to another firm. It was alleged that Milan firm Studio Legale Sutti had taken over the department on the retirement of Italian law specialist Salvatore San Marco.