Europe

FRANCE - Financial services groups Caisse des Depots et Consignations and Caisse Nationale des Caisses d'Epargne et de Prevoyance have teamed up to create EULIA, a joint venture specialising in asset management, insurance and retail banking.

UK - William M Mercer has expanded its legal team with the appointment of Gary Crockford as senior legal consultant.

UK - The £350m Express Dairies pension scheme will complete an actuarial review on April 1, 2002 which will lead to a review of investment arrangements and, most likely, an increase in allocation to bonds for the mature scheme.

UK - The £325m London Borough of Waltham Forest Superannuation Fund is still seeking to allocate £500,000 to venture capital following a "disappointing" presentation from London Ventures.

UK - Scottish Life Administration Services (SLAS) has appointed Derek Meldrum as relationship manager for its third party administration business based in Edinburgh.

UK - KAS Associatie has landed its first UK custody mandate win, having been appointed as custodian to the £145m Norwest Holst Group Staff Pension Scheme.

UK - Five institutional investor bodies have joined forces to press for timely international consensus on the treatment of share option accounting.

UK - InvestIT, the investment management consultancy and IT solutions provider, has hired Richard Phillipson to head up its investment practice.

UK - The professionalism of pension fund trustees has been called into question following last week's Merrill Lynch/Unilever settlement, leading to calls for a greater emphasis on fund audits and a scrutiny of manager contracts.

UK - Britannic Asset Management (BAM) has completed its transaction to buy Blairlogie Capital Management from ABN Amro Asset Management for an undisclosed sum, increasing its total funds under management by approximately $800m.