Europe

EUROPE - Deutsche Bank AG's weak results for 2001 clearly demonstrate the need to ruthlessly address the group's unfavorable cost structure, which continues to be the group's Achilles heel, said Michael Zlotnik, managing director of Standard & Poor's...

UK - Clerical Medical has cut its annual and final bonus rates by 1%.

UK - Gissings has appointed David Brooks as finance director.

UK - More UK pension funds may join WWF-co-ordinated action to call on BP to disclose how it measures the risk to shareholder value from drilling in environmentally sensitive areas.

EUROPE - Standard & Poor's, the global rating agency has said that Commerzbank's weak performance in 2001 had been expected and reflected in its recent rating action.

UK - Lingerie firm Triumph International is pulling out of Myanmar following pressure from shareholders including pension funds, labour organisations and exiled Burmese groups.

ITALY - Borsa Italiana has teamed up with ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) to launch a new equity index.

EUROPE - Investors took heart from positive figures registered by the European Commission this week, showing the first surge of business confidence in the eurozone since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

UK - Many companies are no longer willing to meet the regulatory and funding burdens of maintaining a pension scheme, the National Association of Pension Funds claims.

UK - Watson Wyatt has appointed Mirko Cardinale as an economist to further develop its research capabilities in risk management and corporate finance and governance. This is a newly created position.