Global

GLOBAL - Watson Wyatt's new series of conferences, replacing the Global Asset Study (GAS) conference, will operate free of charge in the UK and theUS, while there will be a "cost covering charge" to attend these eventselsewhere globally.

GLOBAL - Luxembourg has the highest "pension wealth" for a worker on average earnings of all Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

GLOBAL - Schroders has banded with New York-based European Investors Incorporated (EII), real estate investment boutique, to develop global property investment solutions for institutional and retail investors.

GLOBAL - Dutch finance group ING has completed its sale of Baring Asset Management to US firms Northern Trust and MassMutual Financial group.

GLOBAL - Convention Watch, a new service from EIRIS, enables investors to identify breaches of international conventions on human rights, labour standards, the environment, corruption and landmines in the companies they invest in.

GLOBAL - Substantial reforms to public sector pensions have already taken place, or are expected, in most developed countries, new research by Watson Wyatt has found.

GLOBAL - Barclays Capital has announced it will add Japanese inflation-linked bonds (JGBi's) to its global inflation-linked index at the end of April with an expected weight of 1.2%.

GLOBAL - Growth style investing is poised to make a comeback in 2005, Janus Institutional Asset Management argues.

GLOBAL - Hedge fund returns are likely to suffer from the growing influx of money into the market, warns Watson Wyatt.

GLOBAL - US investment and insurance company The Hartford has selected six UK fund managers as investment partners for its UK investment products.