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Seven partners have defected from the Gothenburg office of leading Swedish firm Lagerlöf & Leman to form a new firm, KPMG Wahlin Advokatbyrå. However, the new firm will not continue to be called that for long because the Swedish Bar Association has forced the firm to drop KPMG from its name as of November 1 1997. The Bar said the name gave the impression the firm was not an independent law firm. "We think it is the wrong decision," says name partner Tryggve Wahlin. "The Swedish Bar Association needs to adapt to the market trend. We do not agree with the view that the name gives the appearance that we are not independent. What is important is that we are independent." The firm is a member of the KPMG-aligned international network of law firms, and has a cooperation agreement with KPMG Bohlins, the Swedish accounting, tax and consulting arm of the big six firm. But it is, Wahlin insists, an independently-owned law firm.

The big six have already made significant inroads into the French and Spanish legal markets, but so far the Portuguese have managed to keep them at bay, with some very stiff regulation. Nick Ferguson reports

Davis & Company have become the first Canadian firm to open an office in Japan. The Tokyo office is the firm's first outside Canada. The office is staffed by two Canadian lawyers and there are plans to increase the number of lawyers to over 10, including Japanese lawyers (bengoshi), if the Japanese Bar Association removes restrictions (see International Financial Law Review, September 1997, page 27).

In June 1997 the Danish Parliament adopted a new Act on Competition (No. 384), bringing Danish competition law into line with EU competition principles. The provisions of the new Act come into force on January 1 1998.

Dr Peter Derendinger, general counsel at Credit Suisse Group, Zurich, talks to Paul Lee

In 1996 the Mexican government organized an entity called Valuación y Ventas de Activos SA (VVA) for the purpose of organizing a series of sales of loans made by Mexican banks. The aggregate amount of the loans is said to exceed US$42 billion. The loans are held by Fondo Bancario para la Protección de Activos (FOBAPROA), a trust administered by Banco de México, the central bank.

The US$944 million financing package for Osprey Maritime Limited of Singapore to purchase Gotaas-Larsen Shipping Corporation is the largest non-government ship finance transaction. It is also the largest US dollar syndicated loan provided by Singapore banks.

The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) has bought a long leasehold interest in part of the 13-acre Spitalfields site, in London, to build a new trading building.

New York mutual life insurer Metropolitan Life Insurance has acquired Californian-based Security First Group from London Insurance Group. The deal is worth US$377 million.

The latest no-action letters from the US SEC expand the exemptions available to unregistered dealers. By Charles S Gittleman, Julia E Moran and Eva Don-Siemion of Shearman & Sterling, New York