Europe

UK - Friends Ivory & Sime (FIS) has appointed Peter Hewitt as global equities director.

UK - Axa Investment Managers has appointed Bruce Davidson as head of equity research.

EUROPE - The UK's National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) chairman, Peter Thompson, yesterday reiterated his call to the pensions industry to take a fundamental look at how it defines retirement.

UK - Different countries have radically different mixes of private and public pension provision - does the UK have too little private provision or too much? These questions and other related questions on pension security will be addressed at a high level...

EUROPE - The EU Commission attacked member states yesterday for jeopardising prospects for pan-European pensions by not looking beyond their own borders - stressing that the matter was now urgent.

EUROPE - Nearly double the number of institutional investors in Benelux, France, Germany and Italy felt a reduction in assets under management in 2000, compared to 1999, according to fund manager Invesco's 2001 European Institutional Asset Management...

UK - Watson Wyatt has appointed James Colegrave to strengthen its defined contribution (DC) consulting capabilities.

UK - Corporate governance specialist and proxy voting agency Manifest has reported that voting levels at annual meetings are a long way off hitting the government's 60pc target.

UK - Schroders has appointed Michael Dobson, previously head of Deutsche Asset Management and currently chairman and chief executive of Beaumont Capital Management as its chief executive of Schroders.

FINLAND - Finnish insurance giant Sampo and Helsinki-based Mandatum Fund Management have struck a deal over their asset management and mutual fund businesses.