Global

GLOBAL - Susan Douse, formerly of Watson Wyatt and Schroders, has joined a new Boston-based merchant bank as a partner and head of the new London office.

GLOBAL - A group of institutional investors with combined assets of US$8.3trn including Dutch giant PGGM and US fund CalPERS have redoubled their support for an inter-governmental effort to boost transparency standards in the oil, gas and mining sectors...

GLOBAL - Alan Brown, group chief investment officer at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), has resigned and taken gardening leave.

GLOBAL - MSCI has launched eight hedge fund strategy indices as part of its new MSCI Hedge Invest Strategy Indices.

GLOBAL - Fidelity Investments is expanding its institutional business through the creation of a separate company that will invest money on behalf of pension funds, endowments and foundations, the Boston-based manager has announced.

GLOBAL - Companies selling autos in the European Union, with the exemption of BMW, are not disclosing carbon dioxide reduction strategies in compliance with a five-year-old EU agreement, new research warns investors.

GLOBAL - State Street Global Advisors has closed its European enhanced indexation product to new business, on the back of capacity constraints.

GLOBAL - Defined benefit (DB) pension plans worldwide failed to reap the benefits of strong year-end performance by equities in 2004, according to Towers Perrin.

GLOBAL - The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Accounting Standards Board of Japan (ASBJ) are in the midst of discussions over the convergence of their standards.

GLOBAL - Deutscher Investment Trust has begun selling in Germany its Allianz RCM ASIA PACIFIC fund, launched through Luxembourg in January.