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The general picture’s good and the four biggest economies are simultaneously on a growth path.

Just as Schroders Investment Management joins the ranks of company pension funds to dramatically cut equity exposure, the debate about the merits of such moves is heating up.

With their core jobs as trustees and paying agents commoditized, corporate trustees are relishing the chance to carve out a new role for themselves on structured credit deals.

As economic growth slows in 2006, more businesses are expected to fail, with the biggest increases likely in Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US.

ABN Amro bit off more than it could chew when it tried to sell a 4.9% stake in Dutch Telecom company KPN for the Dutch government in December. The bank was unable to offload the entire €883 million block and was left with stock on its books that rivals estimate could be worth hundreds of millions of euros. At least ABN Amro was in good company. Lehman Brothers and HVB also bungled a pre-Christmas trade. Lehman and HVB Corporates & Markets tried to sell an €804 million block of Munich Re shares, equivalent to about 3% of the company’s outstanding shares, at a price range of €116.75 to €117.50 a share, but the deal, on behalf of HVB’s parent, closed at just €116.30. Rivals believe the two might be facing seven-digit losses.

A trader at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo accidentally sold 610,000 shares in J-Com for ¥1 instead of one share for ¥610,000.

Fewer new financial sector rules from the EC might sound like a welcome respite, but it is not the same thing as no new rules.

The security for the sixth ministerial conference was intense but Korean protesters were still able to set off a police fishing operation and the director-general did not escape a barracking, while residents wonder what it’s all for.

Europe is in better shape than a cursory examination of its politicians might suggest.

Kazakhstan’s three biggest banks dominate the industry, but there are opportunities for the country’s second-tier institutions. Patrick Gill reports.

Thailand’s pension system is very much a work in progress. The two principal existing schemes, the Old Age Pension Fund (OAPF) and the Government Pension Fund (GPF), cover roughly 9 million workers between them [see table at end of story]. Another 1.5 million workers are covered by corporate provident funds. A few wealthier Thais benefit from the retirement mutual funds scheme.

Russia has an undeveloped equity market culture, so it is no surprise that there are few retail investors. But this is changing as confidence and understanding of the market grows and disposable incomes increase. Kathryn Wells reports from Moscow.