Category Archives: Regional News

Franco-German Competitiveness Pact

The Franco-German Competitiveness Pact has set out various economic and political goals.  With regard to the economic situation, it was promised that decisions would be reached at the meeting in March.  Issues discussed included:  energy, innovation, Egypt and the Mediterranean region, as well as the “long term structural challenges.”  President Herman Van Rompuy addressed the…

Northern Trust Expands Services to Benelux

Northern Trust will now be expanding the regions where it offers services from Amsterdam to include The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, predicting huge development in the region. The idea is that clients’ will receive greater direct access to the company’s “investment expertise and array of asset management solutions,” no longer restricted to one small area…

Eurozone States Are Urged to Sustain Pension Plans

“The European Union and its Member States must act to ensure that pension schemes can sustainably deliver an adequate income to the EU’s growing number of retired people, despite the economic crisis. This is one of the main points which focused a resolution voted within the Parliament’s Employment Committee which also calls for pension portability…

Autoworkers Union In Italy Strikes Fiat

A national strike against the Fiat Auto manufacturer was held by the autoworker’s union. The union protested being excluded from the worker–management contract negotiations. Recently, Fiat made a contract with more moderate unions to improve productivity in the Mirafiori factory. The engineering division of the left wing labor union, CGIL, organized the one day strike…

France Telecom To Purchase 49% Ownership In Dailymotion

France Telecom is conducting exclusive negotiations to purchase a 49% share in Dailymotion for 58.8m Euro. Dailmotion is a video-sharing website that is nicknamed “the French YouTube.” Atlas Ventures and Partech, investors in Dailymotion, will sell a part of their stakes to France Telecom. France Telecom operates Orange mobile phone services, fixed lines, Online TV,…

German Government Minister Says: Future Reserve Currency Requires Development

Germany’s minister for economic cooperation and development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, said that ideas for making a new international reserve currency to replace the dollar are developing but require refinement. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, the president of the U. N. General Assembly, created a group of experts to examine the global financial crisis and recommend solutions. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul…

News on Italian Stocks

UNICREDIT UniCredit’s up and coming European division, Bank Austria, announced that it has chosen a chairman and chief financial officer. He was chosen from the group during a reshuffle of executive management. FIAT Fiat and Chrysler CEO, Mr. Sergio Marchionne, said that in the coming Fiat – Chrysler JV, Fiat will maintain ownership of the…

PNO Media To Merge With Netherlands Film Pension Scheme

The PNO Media pension fund (€3.3bn) and the the Dutch Film and Cinema Industry pension fund  (€152m) plan to merge. “PNO Media could offer the benefits of scale, as well as certainty for the future of our pension plan,” explained chairman of the film and cinema scheme, Ron Sterk. “Moreover, at PNO Media, our identity…

Fiat Seeking to Expand

Fiat has recently signed a new contract with employees at the fiat plant in Turin. According to Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat, he will now examin investing in two more car factories in other parts of Italy. Accoding to the CEO, The Melfo and Cassino Factories definitely need a lot of investments to improve…

New Allianz Pension Fund Advisors

The German Allianz group has established Allianz Corporate Pension Advisors (ACPA) to consult large companies about pensions. Insurance branch Allianz Lebensversicherung,  Allianz Global Investors  and Allianz SE and have come together  to establish ACPA. This will counsel the firm’s 200 major corporate clients. The group will be headed by Jörg Braun from Allianz Lebensversicherung and…