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The law implementing the Investment Services Directive in Italy will have an additional impact on MIF, the Italian Futures Market – it will be privatized. By Piero Salera of Pavia e Ansaldo, Rome

The modest Korean legal market looks unlikely to have to face competition from abroad just yet, despite the government’s public commitment to globalizing the economy. Nick Ferguson reports

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.

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.

Switzerland generally gets good marks for its efforts to keep its financial markets clean. Together, the Swiss Penal Code, the Guidelines of the Swiss Federal Banking Commission and the Code of Conduct of the Swiss Banks constitute a solid regulatory barrier against the channelling of criminal money into the banking sector. The Financial Action Task Force of the G7 countries not long ago recognized Switzerland's efforts as a substantial contribution to the worldwide struggle against money-laundering.

The recent publication of the German Banking Supervisory Authority’s Circular 4/97 clears the way for the development of a significant ABS market in the Federal Republic. By Alexander Vogt and Kurt Dittrich of Oppenhoff & Rädler, Frankfurt

The London office of New York's Debevoise & Plimpton has won Arthur Marriott from rivals Washington DC-based Wilmer Cutler & Pickering. A leading English advocate, Marriott was one of the first two solicitors made Queen's Counsel in March this year. He takes two assistants with him "Having Marriott will be of great benefit to our clients, for now we will have leading professionals in the international dispute-resolution field on both sides of the Atlantic," says Debevoise's presiding partner Barry Brown. "This move also reflects the firm's overall commitment to our international practice, and to London in particular." International arbitration and litigation issues were formerly handled largely from the firm's New York and Paris offices.

US firm Shearman & Sterling has poached Holland West from rival Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. West, head of derivatives and asset management at Cadwalader, will now lead Shearman & Sterling's global derivatives and structured finance group.

The financing of large communication and infrastructure projects suggests the possibility of new forms of indebtedness, and the private placement of securities abroad is one option in project financing. In the past four years Colombian corporations and special purpose vehicles have privately placed securities abroad to finance their projects.