Regions

GLOBAL - Around 87 institutional investors including some of the world's biggest pension funds are pushing 500 corporate heavyweight companies to disclose information concerning their greenhouse gas emissions.

NORDIC REGION - Nordic institutional investors, including pension funds are ploughing into alternative investments.

GLOBAL - JPMorgan has unveiled a new multi-currency pooling service which allows the pooling of US dollar and euro balances.

GLOBAL - Strong international equity markets buoyed cross-border portfolios during the third quarter 2003.

GLOBAL - Hedge funds performed strongly in the third quarter of 2003 and all strategies posted positive returns in September, Hedge Fund Research says.

GLOBAL - Fund managers are producing increasingly bullish assessments of the global economy, an investor confidence survey shows.

UK/EUROPE - Lagging sales in the UK is forcing Aviva to consider moving its pensions operation to Europe.

GLOBAL - Global Investor Services, the global custody division of HSBC Bank, has unveiled its Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) service to assist the settlement of underlying forex deals of custody assets.

EUROPE - Equity vehicles are expected to dominate fund launches over the next 12 months on the back of renewed optimism in the stock market.

UK/EU - A controversial European directive will increase costs for pension providers and financial advisers by more than £1bn a year if passed, according to industry experts.