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Deeth Williams Wall, Toronto

In line with the recently published recommendations on the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), the UK government is to set up a Treasury Taskforce to help get projects off the ground. By Nicholas Bliss of Freshfields, London

New tax incentives in the 1997 Budget approved by Parliament in July focused mainly on the financial sector. Effective for five years from assessment year 1998, they will be:

New guidelines for market participants on management and internal control have been welcomed but the Securities and Futures Commission has also published suggested control techniques which have been less well received. By James Walker and Kenneth Leung of Clifford Chance, Hong Kong

Credit Suisse Group, one of Switzerland's biggest banks, has merged with Winterthur, Switzerland's third biggest insurer. The SFr14.3 billion (US$9.3 billion) merger will make the new group Europe's fifth largest financial services group.

A team of lawyers has left German firm Hölters & Elsing, Dusseldorf, to set up their own firm. Corporate partner Rainer Velten and Christian Franz, Bernd Mayer and Markus Jakoby have formed Velten Franz Mayer & Jakoby, with offices in Dusseldorf and Berlin. The firm will specialize in corporate and real estate transactions, and plans to open an office in Frankfurt shortly.

US partners' compensation increased by 3.56% in 1996, and associates compensation was boosted by 4.4%, in an economy where inflation was only 2.7%. These are the most striking results of the latest annual survey of law firm economics published by law firm consultants Altman Weil Pensa.

Mid-sized Singapore firm Colin Ng & Partners is adding to its international links. The firm already has a foreign office in Shanghai, and is soon to add offices in both Jakarta, Indonesia and one in Beijing.

International Financial Law Review understands that Bureau Francis Lefebvre and Briones, Alonso & Martin, leading firms, particularly in the tax field, in France and Spain respectively, have agreed a merger of their Spanish operations. The two will link formally on October 1 1997. The move is likely to be seen as a defensive reaction to the J&A Garrigues/Arthur Andersen merger in Spain, which puts particular pressure on tax firms. A full report on this merger will appear in the October issue of the magazine.

Coudert Brothers has announced it is to incorporate Montreal firm McDougall, Caron into its international network. The move into Canada is rare for an international US law firm and is the first US foray into Quebec. The firm has opened new offices in Berlin, St Petersburg and Denver in the last two years.