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In December 2000, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Social and Health Affairs appointed a working group to prepare legislative amendments that could be implemented urgently. The report of the working group was delivered to the two ministries in June 2001. Under the existing provisions, the supervisory duty divided between the Finnish Financial Supervision Authority (FSA) and the Finnish Insurance Supervision Authority (ISA) is not clearly determined. It is possible that newly created banking and insurance groups could operate in the Finnish market without belonging to the area of responsibility of either of the above supervisory authorities.

Following Telecom Italia’s securitization of fixed-line telephone bills, Thomas Williams reports on how a new market is opening up for European telecommunications companies, and their legal advisers, who are struggling to raise finance now the TMT bubble has burst

Hengeler Mueller is to lose a partner to one of its allied firms for the first time, forcing the closure of the German firm's Italian desk. Martin Hartl, a Hengeler mergers and acquisitions (M&A) specialist who also runs the firm's Italian advisory division, will join leading Italian corporate, antitrust and securities firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, which has a best friends relationship with the German firm, later this year. He is likely to move between October and January, after he completes the deals he is still working on for Hengeler in Berlin.

The Australian government has taken an active and progressive view on financial legislation, this year introducing a series of significant reforms. Don Harding of Freehills, Sydney, assesses the new Corporations Act and the progress being made towards reform of financial services provision

The UK’s Court of Appeal ruled last month that a bank can avoid payment on a performance bond if it has been acquired fraudulently. Paul Friedman and Philip Young of Baker & McKenzie, London, review the case and assess its implications for banks and bondholders

Fixed or floating? When examining a charge over a company’s uncollected book debts it is sometimes hard to say, but in June the UK Privy Council gave a new and helpful opinion in Brumark. Justin Bickle of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, London, examines the case and its implications

Troubled German microchip-maker Infineon last month called in technology-focused Brobeck Hale & Dorr and Clifford Chance for a $1.4 billion secondary share offering in difficult market conditions. Infineon made the share offering in Germany and the US and through private placements to international institutional investors elsewhere on July 3. The 60 million share secondary offering in the US and Germany was priced at euro 25 ($21) a share.

Alain Gauvin of Coudert Brothers, Paris, reviews the Peregrine/Robinson ruling and argues that market quotations are not sufficient when settling payments in such cases

On April 10 2001 the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published a consultation paper reviewing the Codes on Takeovers and Mergers and Share Repurchases relating to public companies.

European Commission officials are considering whether to block a hostile bid for Montedison. The Italian industrial group is the target of a $4.18 billion joint offer by the acquisitive French utility company Électricité de France (EDF) and Italian carmaker Fiat. The Commission's decision is a particularly difficult one because of the way in which Fiat and EDF have structured their bid. Both are bidding through their joint venture company Italenergia, which has no turnover, while Montedison itself gets two-thirds of its revenues from the Italian market. Under EU rules each merger partner has to have euro 250 million ($215 million) in more than one EU country. Whether the deal is a matter for Italian regulators or the Commission will depend on whether EU officials consider the assets of Fiat and EDF separately.