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Shareholders of several large corporates will have been cheered last week by the announcement of share buyback programmes for the coming year. EnCana, the Canadian gas company, announced a share buyback programme for 2005 which is to be funded by the proceeds from its sale of oil and natural gas assets in North America and Ecuador, expected to total $3 billion. The company had previously planned to buy back 5% of its stock, although the Toronto stock exchange has approved plans to buy back as much as 10%.

Surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve confirm that electronic payment transactions in the US have exceeded check payments for the first time. The number of electronic payment transactions totalled 44.5 billion in 2003, while the number of checks paid totalled 36.7 billion, according to recent surveys of US depository financial institutions and electronic payments organizations.

Caterpillar, the manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, has selected Sungard's AvantGard products to support its global treasury operations and will implement the solution using 6 Sigma methodology.

China M&A activity will enjoy a continuation of the strong growth seen in 2004 in the current year, with larger and more complex deals being undertaken, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' Transaction Services group. The rapid increase in activity is being fuelled by the ongoing restructuring and privatisation of former State Owned Enterprises ("SOEs"), together with strong inbound investment across a range of industries. This is particularly evident in those industries being deregulated where foreign participation was previously restricted to joint ventures and minority stakes.

Sally Smedal, treasurer and controller at Basic American Foods, has assumed the chairmanship of the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) Board of Directors, succeeding Denise Laussade, vice president of finance at Dan River. Elected by the AFP membership, Smedal will serve as AFP board chairman for a two-year term.

Telstra, the Australian telecommunications company, today announced plans for a possible $A500 million ($392 million), eight-to-nine year long term bond issue in early March, targeted at domestic and offshore institutional investors.

UK corporates that don't complete acquisitions before April 5 2005 could face increased pension costs under new TUPE regulations, according to a warning from law firm Withers LLP.

NMS Communications, the US mobile provider, has appointed D'Anne Hurd as its new CFO. Hurd was previously CFO of rival communications provider StarBak Communications. Also in the U.S., Michael Robinson, CFO of US Lec, the internet technology company based in Charlotte, is moving to New York to become CEO of Broadview Network Holdings, the communications provider. He will leave US Lec on March 4.

The cost of complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in most cases appears to be matched by the effectiveness of improving risk management, according to a survey by RevenueRecognition.com and International Data Corp.

The announcement of twelve IPOs in the last week and a survey that finds more investors ploughing money into equity are tentative but definitively positive signs for the UK equity market.

A survey by The Hackett Group has revealed that finance officers who operate the most effective procurement systems spend more on technology, yet manage to spend less on operations overall.

European default and recovery rates in 2004 show Europe is experiencing the benign credit environment that prevailed across much of the globe last year, reports Moody's Investors Service. During 2004, there were only five European bond defaulters, two rated by Moody's. The total volume of defaulted bonds in Europe was €1.9 billion, of which Moody's rated defaulters accounted for €1.4 billion. Both rated defaulters, Avon Energy Partners and Equitable Finance, are located in the UK.