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Pragmatism has prevailed at last. The UK's House of Lords has rejected Charge Card and acknowledged the reality of charge-backs under English law. By Geoffrey Yeowart of Lovell White Durrant, London

In July 1997 a special one man taskforce was appointed by the Ministry of Finance to prepare a proposal for the reorganization of the supervision of Finland's financial and insurance markets. Particular attention was to be paid to the integration and technical development of the financial and insurance markets.

The Insolvency Law Reform Act 1997 (1997 Act) contains amendments to Austrian corporate law, including statutory provisions to strengthen the supervisory board's control function in joint stock corporations (AG) and in limited liability companies (GmbH). The following reforms should more effectively prevent corporate insolvencies:

Gazprom and Shell have signed an alliance agreement to cooperate on the development of energy projects worldwide. The joint energy group will produce around 500,000 barrels a day of oil and gas condensates. As part of the alliance Shell will commit up to US$1 billion in a convertible bond to be issued by Gazprom.

The relaxation of the law that prohibits companies from buying back their own shares is now under review by the Registry of Companies.

The year's leading deals identified and analyzed. The deals break new ground and many are templates for future transactions. By Richard Forster, Nick Ferguson and Stephen Mulrenan

The race for MCI Communications is over. MCI's board has approved a US$37 billion takeover offer from WorldCom, far in excess of rival offers from BT and GTE. The merger will create a company with a market capitalization of US$60 billion and revenues of US$32 billion. Some of the world's leading banks and law firms assembled to advise on the deal.

Chadbourne & Parke has lost its only UK-qualified partner in its London project finance department. Martin Stewart-Smith has left the office after less than six months to join Cameron McKenna.

"Where there is no vision people perish" quotes Clifford Chance's Vision of the Future from the Book of Proverbs. While one of their banking partners might be forgiven for not reading the good book, he clearly applied biblical zeal to his handling of relations with a UK financial services client, informing its in-house head that they would be more suited to another, mid-sized firm and even being so kind as to name an alternative.

The planned merger between Dutch firms Loeff Claeys Verbeke, of Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and the Hague's Buruma Maris, will not go ahead. Announced in July 1997, it would have taken effect from January 1 1998 (see International Financial Law Review, August 1997, page 3). According to figures compiled for the International Financial Law Review 1000 Directory, the merger would have created Holland's largest firm, and the 29th largest firm in the world. The move reflects events three years ago, when Buruma Maris rebuffed the possibility of merger with Loeff Claeys.