Regions

EUROPE - The European Asset Management Association and the Fédération des Fonds et Sociétés d'Investissement are considering joining forces to lobby more effectively.

UK/EU - A bitter row over pension rights for agency workers has flared between employers and trade unions.

EUROPE - Alternative asset manager Partners Group has held an initial closing of E137m for Premier, a convertible bond with an underlying fund of managed hedge funds accounts, offering the investor daily liquidity at NAV.

GLOBAL - Bank of New York and ING have announced a global arrangement to outsource ING's international cash equities clearance and settlements operations in London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore to BoNY.

LATIN AMERICA - Pension systems may have a different impact on the two genders.

EUROPE - Dow Jones is planning to launch the world's first Islamic ETF by the end of this year or early in 2003.

EUROPE - European countries could face debts more than double their domestic product if they do not tackle pension liabilities, market information provider Key Note warns.

GLOBAL - Texas-based firm Mutuals.com has launched a controversial new "vice fund" which invests in the so-called "socially irresponsible" stocks of the alcohol, gambling, tobacco, and defence industries.

GLOBAL - On 18 November 2002 Eurex, the international derivatives market, wants to initiate trading in futures and options on exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

EUROPE - Widely differing attitudes to pensions among EU member states make the chances for an EU-wide strategy unfeasible, Deloitte & Touche claims.