Xchanging and Boots sign seven-year £400 million outsourcing contract

Microsoft has appointed Chris Liddell as CFO, replacing John Connors who left the company in January. Liddell most recently served as CFO at International Paper, a Fortune 100 company. Before that, Liddell served as chief executive officer of one of New Zealand's largest companies, Carter Holt Harvey.

Tonio Bogdanski has been appointed CFO of Universal Germany, the German arm of Universal Music International. He joins from VG Media, the collecting society for radio and television stations, where was managing director since 2002. Douglas Shumate has resigned as CFO from US communications company ITC Deltacom for undisclosed reasons. Richard Fish, chief administrative officer since February, has been promoted to replace him. Fish, who was instrumental in the company's debt restructuring last month, was previously CFO of telecommunications provider ICG Communications.

Many large organisations that outsourced information technology and other services are bringing some operations back in-house, according to a new study by Deloitte. The organisations who participated currently spend $50 billion on outsourcing and they have found the outsourcing process is much more complex than initially anticipated. Dissatisfaction with cost savings and reduced flexibility were found to be the primary reasons behind participants' responses.

Stuart Gray has been named treasurer of United Industrial, the US defence systems producer.

In Washington today, top officials of the EU Commission and the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) reached agreement on a roadmap towards equivalence between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

ABN Amro has pioneered an FX model that predicts price behaviour in EUR-USD spot rate.

This year's DCM survey received a record number of responses – almost twice as many as last year – from corporates eager to rank the best and worst banks for DCM service.

SG Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) announces the appointment of Philippe de Vulpian as managing director of the Utilities and Chemicals sectors in the M&A team in France. Based in Paris, he will report to Jacques Bitton, head of M&A, France. Philippe, 40 years of age, has spent the majority of his professional career working in M&A. He began his career in 1993 at JP Morgan in Paris in Corporate Finance where he worked in financing and advisory for clients such as Alcatel, Legrand, Lyonnaise des Eaux, Schneider and Thomson.

Royal Philips Electronics, Merrill Lynch and Hewitt Associates (NYSE:HEW) today announced agreements in principle about the sale of Asset Management and Pension Management activities (part of Philips Pensions Competence Center, PPCC) to Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Limited (MLIM) and Hewitt Associates for Pension Administration (Hewitt), respectively. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

Siemens Financial Services survey shows finance availability is fuelling technology investment growth in European medium-sized companies Finance availability is boosting technology investment by European medium-sized companies, says the latest output from Siemens Financial Services‚ ongoing research.

Worldwide business risks increased sharply over the past three months, according to new research from the Economist Intelligence Unit based on a survey of international risk managers. The findings, which are taken from the Economist Intelligence Unit's new Corporate Risk Barometer, indicate that business risk increased most significantly in the US, the Middle East and Russia in the first quarter of 2005. The findings show firms believe business risks in the US are increasing much more rapidly than in Europe or Japan.

Dow Chemical has announced that Geoffery Merszei will CFO, succeeding J. Pedro Reinhard later this year.

BNP Paribas has appointed Patrick Calinski to its corporate debt capital markets (DCM) team in Paris. Calinski started at the beginning of April reporting to Jérôme Clément-Cottuz, head of DCM for Belgium, France and Luxembourg. He joins from Natexis Banques Populaires where he has worked for 12 years.

Dutch food group Friesland Foods has appointed Andre Boudewijns as chief financial officer of Royal Friesland Foods. He will take up his position on May 1. In this position, Andre Boudewijns will be responsible for the corporate departments finance & accounting, treasury, and information & communication technology.

New research from actuarial consultants Higham Group shows that UK occupational pension schemes will have to pay at least £300 million in order to comply with new tax rules, aimed at simplifying the pensions industry. This staggering figure, which dwarfs all previous estimates, is over twice the £150 million sum the Government hoped to raise this year (also from occupational pension schemes) to fund the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

Default trends among UK companies suggest that the UK Pension Protection Fund (PPF) could rapidly exhaust its resources in meeting claims from company pension schemes, according to a new study by Standard & Poor's, the ratings agency.

The 'Big Six' of outsourcing –Accenture, ACS, CSC, EDS, HP, and IBM – saw their combined market share fall by well over half (57%) in the first quarter of 2005, according to the latest Quarterly Index from TPI. They have won only 27% of the €11 billion ($14.2 billion) of major contracts (those worth over €40 million) awarded so far this year, compared with 63% in the first quarter of 2004. Non-Big Six firms have secured the majority (64%) of new deals against 45% a year ago.

Stephen M. Cutler, Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, announced today that he intends to leave the Commission in a month's time. Mr. Cutler, 43, said he plans to return to the private sector. He was named Enforcement Director in October 2001.

As pressure to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations mounts, a new report by AberdeenGroup demonstrates that companies that involve much of the organization in their SOx review process are experiencing lower costs and increased profits. By contrast, companies who limit SOx reviews to a small group of senior management have the worst performance records.

As a result of a realignment of Deutsche Bank's Global Transaction Banking (GTB) arm Werner Steinmueller has been appointed global head of GTB.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) today issued an amendment to the hedge accounting provisions of IAS 39 Financial Instruments: Recognition and Measurement.

PricewaterhouseCoopers today underscored the positive impact the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has had on the capital markets and investors confidence. PwC Global CEO Samuel A. DiPiazza, Jr., who participated in the SEC's April 13th Roundtable on Section 404, said: "The Act brought about three important improvements for the capital markets:

UK companies made £8 billion ($15.1 billion) of special contributions to reduce pension deficits during 2004 – an increase of nearly a quarter from 2003.

Misys Banking Systems has announced the launch of a range of new solutions to help both corporates and banks align their back offices with SwiftNet, the cooperative messaging platform.

Impco Technologies CFO and treasurer Nickolai Gerde has resigned to pursue other opportunities.

Research by KPMG shows there has been a significant surge in the number of FTSE100 finance directors who are leaving their jobs – and that 2005 could set a new high in the number of departures. The analysis underlines how finance directors are now under increasing pressure from both their boards and investors – and that there is now a growing shortage of people able to take on the top-level finance positions in the UK's biggest companies.

Canadian biopharmaceutical company QLT has announced that Michael Doty is to step down as CFO with immediate effect, though there was no indication that this was linked to poor performance. CEO Paul Hastings said Doty had implemented a new standard of financial discipline at the company. "He introduced a new budgeting process that has allowed us to better control and manage our business, he put in a highly effective foreign currency exposure risk management strategy, and he has worked diligently to meet the many new requirements of corporate governance, including those of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act," he said.

A new survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, the world's largest employee benefits consultancy, shows that employment costs in western European countries are more than four times higher than those in the east. At the extremes, costs in the most expensive countries are over ten times those in the least costly countries.

Werner Steinmueller has been appointed global head of Deutsche Bank's Global Transaction Banking (GTB) business. In his new function, Steinmueller will ensure a strong customer focus, enhanced regional alignment and closer cooperation between the GTB areas, which includes cash management, trade finance and trust & securities services.