Regions

GLOBAL - Peter Eyre is to join Watson Wyatt as a senior consultant advising multinational clients on the management of their worldwide employee benefits programmes.

GLOBAL - Pension funds looking at investing in gold to hedge their portfolio against inflation would be better looking elsewhere, warns a report by Barclays Capital.

EUROPE - Continental European financial institutions are facing a tough time, with two issuing profits warnings in the last month.

GLOBAL - Asian hedge funds held up well in the face of the July market turmoil with all of the Bank of Bermuda AsiaHedge indices still in positive territory for the year, unlike many of the US and European indices.

THE NETHERLANDS - Global outsourcing and consulting firm Hewitt Associates is to fully integrate its Dutch-based partner Heijnis en Koelman.

EUROPE - European-based alternative asset management firm Unigestion has expanded its private equity team with the appointment of senior investment professionals in both its London and Geneva offices.

US/EUROPE - Life insurers on both sides of the Atlantic are coming under pressure in the wake of falling stock markets and corporate bond defaults.

UK/EUROPE - Independent investment manager Hermes has launched a new active European Smaller Companies fund.

EUROPE - Some of Europe's big name fund managers could find themselves on the market as the industry braces itself for dramatic profit slumps, according to a new report by strategy consultants Oliver, Wyman & Company and investment bank UBS Warburg.

GLOBAL - German engineering company Siemens has awarded ABN AMRO Mellon a E15bn mandate to provide global master record keeping services to its major pension funds worldwide.