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A three-way merger in Europe could create the world's largest steel group. French company Usinor is merging with Luxembourg's Arbed and Aceralia in Spain to form an as yet unnnamed combined steemaker, which will be based in Luxembourg. The merger is expected to complete in autumn 2001. Aceralia shareholders will hold 20% of the company, while Arbed shareholders will control 23%. Usinor investors will hold the biggest share, with 57%. The company, which will list on Euronext, Luxembourg and Madrid, should be able to produce 46 million tons a year. It will have a market capitalization of $4.5 billion.

KPMG Consulting gave a much-needed shot in the arm to the Nasdaq market with its $2 billion initial public offering (IPO) in February. The issue was the biggest seen from a US company in almost a year. It was also the first time a big five accountancy firm's consultancy business had been floated.

For the first time in five years Linklaters & Alliance has been toppled from its top spot on stand alone bond work. Its successor is the firm who has played the bridesmaid for so long – Allen & Overy. Ben Maiden reports on the surprise results of this year’s IFLR international bond survey

Lovells has represented the world's oldest mutual life assurer, the UK's Equitable Life, in a sell-off that has dominated the British business press.

2000 was a bumper year for lawyers in Paris working at the high-end of capital markets and M&A – and not just those at the international firms. Now, as Thomas Williams reports from Paris, it is up to the regulators to make sure restrictive regulations do not stifle the boom

China’s securities market has never been clearly market-oriented or under the firm rule of law. However, Kaili’s court case against the China Securities Regulatory Commission resulted in a landmark decision in favour of the plaintiff. Jingzhou Tao, managing partner of Coudert Brothers’ Beijing office, explains the importance of the ruling

Electronic banking is becoming more and more fashionable in Switzerland. A great number of established banks now also offer their services on the internet. And so far five banks have been licensed to do exclusively e-banking. The Federal Banking Commission takes a liberal approach to this new form of banking. This supervisory authority considers the availability of e-banking in existing banks as a mere extension of sales channels which is not subject to an additional permit and must not even be notified to the FBC.

The Polish Parliament is working on changes to the Banking Law Act of 29 August 1997 (Journal of Laws of 1997, No 140, item 939 with subsequent amendments). The aim of the proposed amendments is to harmonize the Polish legal system with EU regulations. The main references in this process are the provisions of Directive No 2000/12, relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions and regulations, regarding consumer credits and electronic money.

The new Belgian Company Code, the law of January 23 2001, and the Royal Decree of January 30 2001 which sets out the details of various general provisions in the Company Code, all came into effect on February 6 2001.

On January 31 2001, the Finnish Ministry of Finance appointed a working group to develop legislation applicable to the book-entry securities system and book-entry accounts. The task of the working group is to propose amendments to the legislation, in order to create a multi-level ownership system.