Europe

WALES - Changes to investment arrangements are imminent at the £736m Torfaen County Borough Council Greater Gwent Pension Fund, with a possible move to a more specialist arrangement on the cards.

UK - Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has hired Jeremy Richardson to its London-based equity research effort.

UK - Hedge fund specialist Key Asset Management (Key) has boosted its presence in London with three new appointments.

UK/ITALY - Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), the asset management of Lloyds TSB is to extend its reach into the Italian institutional market with a co-operation deal and with investment bank Cofiri Sim.

UK - Life offices that do not sign-up to the Association of British Insurers' (ABI) ‘quality mark' should be "named, shamed and shunned", according to one industry expert.

UK - Morley Fund Management has launched a sustainability matrix which ranks FTSE100 companies according to social and environmental criteria.

UK - Mercer Human Resource Consulting is urging the Government to slash the "intolerable" red tape surrounding public and private pension provision and introduce a single tax regime.

UK - The Government is to review the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (Opra) in a move that could lead to further safeguards around occupational pensions.

UK - Christine Farnish has been appointed as the new chief executive of the National Association of Pension Fund's (NAPF), effective July 1, 2002.

EUROPE - A new study shows that around 42% of institutional investors across Europe - including pension funds - are expected to increase their private equity holdings over the next five years.