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The EU Commission is pressing Austria to abolish anonymous banking. With the Austrian government stalling, the matter is likely to go to the European Court. By Friedrich Schwank of Law Offices Dr F Schwank, Vienna

Concluding his consideration of repos, Claude Brown of Linklaters & Paines, London, discusses the various master agreements for repos, buy/sell backs and stock loans

UK firm Wilde Sapte has appointed 12 partners, 10 in the London office, one in Tokyo and one in New York.

• US firm Winston & Strawn has rehired former partner Robert Bostrom. Bostrom will leave his post as legal and regulatory general counsel at NatWest Bancorp to head the financial institutions practice in the New York office of the law firm.

Inco, the North American nickel company, has acquired Diamond Field Resources, the Canadian metals company, in a US$4.3 billion agreed takeover, the largest in Canadian history.

General Motors, the US car company, has spun off its subsidiary Electronic Data Systems (EDS), the US software and consulting company, in a US$500 million transaction. EDS now has a listing on the New York and London stock exchanges.

On May 21 1996, 54.6% of the voting shares of electricity distributor Light were sold to a consortium lead by Electricité de France for US$2.2 billion. This was the largest privatization to date and the second to involve a significant foreign participation. Light has 80% of the distribution market in the state of Rio de Janeiro and has now been granted a new concession for 30 years.

The package of regulatory reforms set to come before the Legislative Council this autumn will innovate as well consolidate. John Holmes and James Walker of Clifford Chance, Hong Kong, look at its new provisions

German law firm Deringer Tessin Herrmann & Sedemund has officially opened its office in Berlin. The firm had been working out of the city since February having absorbed local practice Pfeiffer Brandes Neumann.

The High Court recently held in Possfund Custodian Trustee v Diamond that it is arguable that those responsible for the issue of a company's prospectus owe a duty of care not only to initial subscribers but also to subsequent purchasers of thatcompany's shares in the market. Shares in Diamond Group Holdings (Diamond) were placed on the Unlisted Securities Market in April 1989. Most of the plaintiffs were subscribers but some had also made subsequent purchases of Diamond's shares on the USM. These later purchases took place in the 'after market', the period (in this case two-and-a-half months) after the placing during which the most recent published financial information on Diamond remained that found in the prospectus.