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Asset securitization is increasingly accepted by Japanese corporations and institutions as a financing technique, and by investors as a suitable investment. Dean Yoost and Sachihiko Fujimoto, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, Tokyo, provide practical guidance

Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan get Beller

It has been a month in the news for KPMG. Between advertising campaigns and plans to float part of the partnership, the global services firm has rarely been out of the headlines. KPMG has now announced that it is to spend $60 million on a brand building campaign. It will be based on the phrase ?It's time for clarity?. The inspiration for this gem comes from a survey of 250 chief executive officers and chief financial officers at Fortune 1000 companies. The respondents expressed concern about the information overload and confusion of advice they receive.

Merrill Lynch lost another round in the US courts in late August, in its efforts to defend a complicated financial product that it sold to prominent US corporations to help the companies generate capital losses. The decision is important for international tax planning because it shows the fragility of financial products that have little purpose other than generating tax results when tested in the US courts.

The French government wants to extract high taxes from the banking and financial services sectors to pay for tax cuts in other areas of the economy. Under measures proposed by the government in September this year, contributions made by the sector to the taxe professionelle (business tax) will go up to finance a reduction for other sectors. The proposals are part of the reform of the business tax. The tax is based on assets and salaries, and rates vary from region to region. Under the proposals the salary base would be removed from the tax. The socialist government hopes that this will encourage businesses to hire more employees and so reduce unemployment.

UK mutual insurance company Friends' Provident is to buy London & Manchester, a life insurance company. The deal is valued at £750 million ($1.2 billion) and will make Friends' Provident the UK's fourth-largest mutual life insurance company.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to buy Bank of Ireland's 23.5% holding in US bank, Citizens Financial Group. The deal is valued at $750 million, and will give Royal Bank of Scotland 100% ownership of Citizens Financial.

Southern Electric and Scottish Hydro-Electric have proposed to merge in a transaction valued at $7.7 billion. The merger would give Southern Electric 55% of the combined business.

General anti-avoidance rules fill tax advisers the world over with trepidation. With good reason? Oliver Ralph compares practices and precedents across international jurisdictions, to discover the substance behind the rules

India's rate of taxation of royalties and fees for technical services varies between 10% and 20%. An interesting position has emerged after the German treaty was entered into on November 29 1996. This treaty provides for a withholding rate of 10% on royalties and fees for technical services.