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The commoditization of energy and the development of a European energy market is well under way — but will remain incomplete while there is no standardized master contract available. By Mark Haedicke of Enron Capital & Trade Resources Corporation, Houston

• US firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has appointed Lawrence Fruchtman. He joins from National Westminster Bancorp, where he specializes in domestic and international banking regulation. He has also worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Dutch financial services company Aegon is buying the insurance operations of Providian Corporation in a US$2.62 billion stock transaction. It is the largest acquisition in the life insurance industry.

UK firm Lovell White Durrant has expanded its Chicago practice with the appointment of six lawyers over the last three months. Anne Fortney is the latest to join the niche reinsurance practice, becoming of counsel. She leaves the Washington DC office of Carlsmith Ball Wichman Case & Ichiki, where she was a partner. "Anne is clearly quite a catch," says a Lovell spokesperson. Neal Moglin has also joined the firm as of counsel from rival Kaplan & Begy. Linda Dublow joins from Streich Lang in Chicago; James Chareq from Stuart & Branigin in Indiana; Markus Heyder from Latham & Watkins in Chicago; and Philip Bock from Chicago firm Lord, Bissel & Brook.

UK firm Herbert Smith leads UK firms in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) transactions with 38 deals, according to a new league table published by PFI Report. The table lists Linklaters & Paines second with 35. Dibb Lupton Alsop, in third place, leads Freshfields by seven deals. Allen & Overy comes fifth, with 21 deals.

US firm White & Case is setting up a trade finance and commodity practice in London. Nicholas Budd, partner at the firm's Paris office, will head the group, which was first launched in France.

On January 1 1997 a number of amendments to the Federal Act on Debt Collection and Insolvency of 1889 entered into force. The amendments are aimed at updating and clarifying the Act, without changing its structure. In the field of injunctions to freeze assets as a provisional remedy, three major modifications have been enacted with a view to improve the protection for the debtor and the third party holder of assets:

With less than five months to go before it returns to Chinese control, Hong Kong is enjoying a surge in the property and securities markets as well as in the overall economy. Confidence is running high. Paul Lee reports

Two articles in the November 1996 edition of International Financial Law Review featured structures for securitization and repackaging of assets which are increasingly being located in and partly governed by the laws of Jersey. The articles entitled 'Emerging markets cash flow securitizations take off' and 'Asset repackaging wins further followers' dealt with a wide range of assets which can be repackaged or securitized, often through an offshore SPV, with the funding contributed by a medium-term note or a short-term commercial paper issue.

Until recently pension funds did not exist in Italy, because not all of the ministerial decrees contemplated by Legislative Decree No. 124 of April 21 1993 which introduced and regulated pension funds had been issued. Three decrees have recently been enacted, two by the Treasury and one by the Ministry of Labour, which now make pension funds fully operative in Italy.