Regions

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.

EUROPE - The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has recommended that listed companies disseminate regulated information to all investors across Europe, free of charge.

EUROPE - The European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP) in conjunction with PwC is preparing formal complaints with the European Commission against 13 member states including the UK, the Netherlands and Germany on discriminatory tax treatment...

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.

GLOBAL - Nomura Asset Management (NAM) is to close its Japanese and Pacific Basin products managed by the international client investment team to new business over capacity issues.

EUROPE - Barclays Global Investors (BGI) has announced the appointment of four new senior members to its fixed income team.