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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.

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.

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.