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US broadcasting group Westinghouse Electric is to merge with Infinity Broadcasting in a $3.9 billion deal which requires the approval of the Federal Communications Commission. Infinity shareholders will receive 1.7 Westinghouse shares for each share held if the transaction is approved.

IBA 26th Biennial Conference

Despite press reports, US firm Baker & McKenzie has denied that it is to close its second Vietnamese office in Hanoi after failing to secure a new branch licence. The office had been operating as a representative office under the old practice rules while the application for a branch licence was processed. Most foreign firms have already received licences for their first office, with Baker & McKenzie setting up in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Mémorial, the official journal of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, in its edition dated May 29 1996, published the law of May 9 1996 on netting of claims in the financial sector (loi du 9 mai 1996 relative à la compensation de créances dans le secteur financier, portant modification de la loi modifiée du 5 avril 1993 relative au secteur financier).

Dutch firm Nauta Dutilh has opened a office in London. Resident partner Diederik van Wassenaer has moved from the New York office to head the practice assisted by two Dutch associates. "In New York I did mainly banking and structured and corporate finance," says Van Wassenaer. "Here I will do the same with more reorganizations and mergers and acquisitions."

US financial regulators have given a cautious welcome to certain uses of new technology. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) still insists that existing regulation must be followed. Anne-Louise Childs reports

• 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.

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.

From January 1 1996, the system of standard tariffs for motor vehicle liability insurance has been replaced by the latest revision of the Federal Law on the Supervision of Private Insurance Companies (Insurance Supervisory Law, ISL). This revision abolished a 20 year-old mandatory system of a single standard tariff for all motor vehicle liability insurers in Switzerland. Now, motor vehicle liability insurers are free to fix a tariff, thereby becoming a non-restricted insurance business.

The Spanish government has recently approved a package of measures introducing important changes in the financial field.