Global

EUROPE - Total assets held in investment funds throughout Europe rose 8.3% in 2001 to EUR4,594bn during the fourth quarter, on the back of investors flocking towards equities, according to FEFSI, the European investment fund body.

GLOBAL - Iris Financial, a provider of tailored component-based financial software solutions has redeveloped its business objects and core financial technology for the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE).

GLOBAL - SecFinex (www.secfinex.com), the online marketplace for securities finance, has introduced an online auction system which allows securities lenders to auction individual lines of stock over the internet.

UK - Fund managers revenues shrank for the first time in five years, despite cost containment measures being put into practice, according to new research from consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

GLOBAL - Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) posted an 18% drop in pre-tax profits prompted mainly by bad debt provisions, including Argentina.

GLOBAL - State Street Global Advisor's chief investment officer Alan Brown believes that tactical asset allocation is on the verge of a comeback, as market conditions are far removed from the boom days of the 1990s.

GLOBAL - The number of people aged over sixty is set to double by 2050, according to new figures from the United Nations. The UN went on to identify funding retirement as a key concern.

GLOBAL - Expatriate employees are now starting to feel the brunt of the shift from final salary pension schemes, according to a new survey by consultants, William M Mercer.

DENMARK - Denmark's DKr15bn Industriens Pensionsforsikring is to press ahead with the beefing of its emerging markets portfolio, despite the recent partial pullout from the sector by the $151bn California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS)....

GLOBAL - SEI Investments, the global provider of asset management and investment technology solutions, says it finished 2001 with new mandates totalling $2.58bn in institutional assets. The assets came from 52 new clients and from existing institutional...