Global

GLOBAL - Northern Trust is in "discussions" with the US Department of Labor (DoL) over allowing multi-national companies to pool their US-based pension scheme assets in tax transparent vehicles based in Ireland and Luxembourg.

GLOBAL - Insight Investment has appointed Mark Ahern, currently head of the institutional client service team, to the newly created role of head of international business development (excluding Europe).

AP3 achieved a record total return of 17.9% last year, as fund capital rose nearly SEK32bn to SEK192bn (US$24.4bn).

GLOBAL - Deutsche Bank has promoted Roelfien Kuijpers to global head of Deutsche Asset Management's Institutional business.

GLOBAL - Barclays Global Investors delivered strong investment performance as profits rose 61% to £542m (US$946m) in 2005, while net new assets under management reached $88bn.

GLOBAL - Schroders today announced an agreement to buy US$2.5bn London-based fund of hedge funds manager NewFinance Capital.

GLOBAL - Commodities can diversify an institutional portfolio more effectively than conventional and alternative asset classes over the intermediate and long term, Credit Suisse has claimed.

SWEDEN - Countries worried about the solvency of their pensions systems could learn from Sweden's notional defined contribution (NDC) pension reform, a World Bank report has claimed.

GLOBAL - Merrill Lynch has agreed to sell its investment management arm Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) to BlackRock for US$1.1bn.

GLOBAL - BNP Paribas Asset Management saw assets under management grow by a record e34.1bn in 2005 to e429.7bn.