Global

GLOBAL - Industry professionals have begun to raise doubts over hedge fund managers and whether the massive inflow, combined with the risk of manager failure, could lead to the bubble bursting.

GLOBAL - Countries that do not have a well developed corporate bond market, such as Australia and Norway, will not be able to base their discount rate for calculating liabilities on a synthetic corporate bond rate, but will instead have to base the discount...

MIDDLE EAST - Dow Jones Indexes and the Bahrain Stock Exchange are set to launch in the first week of June a new broad benchmark index comprised of all stocks listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange.

GLOBAL - Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) has appointed Quintin Price as chief investment officer for the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Pacific region.

GLOBAL - Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) has appointed Quintin Price as chief investment officer for the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Pacific region.

GLOBAL - OECD countries have approved new guidelines that propose that pension fund managers be held legally accountable for protecting the interests of retirement plans' members and beneficiaries.

THE NETHERLANDS - Insurers are grappling with the problem of how to treat pension premiums under FTK, which demands liabilities be discounted at the market rate. Insurers are to implement FTK in January 2007.

GLOBAL - Mercer Human Resource Consulting is to reorganise its management structure, folding the UK and Continental Europe into one unit and creating three regional units - Europe, Asia and the Americas.

GLOBAL - More than half of women have no idea or only a vague idea of their likely retirement income, according to recent Watson Wyatt research.

GLOBAL - Overlay Asset Management (OAM) has made two high profileappointments in Henrik Pedersen and Hai Xin (pictured) as it further expands the business globally.