STRIKE action by staff at Independent Television News has been suspended after union officials claimed there had been "significant improvements" to pension scheme proposals.

BELGIUM - The arrival of the institutional SICAV (société d'investissement à capital variable) vehicle in Belgium could see pension funds and asset managers competing directly against one another.

GLOBAL - A conclusive majority of some of the world's largest pension funds would not accept a standardised measure of longevity, exclusive research by Global Pensions has revealed.

MORGAN STANLEY Investment Management is considering launching a range of pooled portable alpha funds for UK pension schemes, PP has learned.

NETHERLANDS - The Dutch metal and electrotechnical engineering sector fund PME has taken on the pensions of VCBV in a deal that will see PME's assets grow to €20.5bn.

MERCER Investment Consulting global head of research Bill Muysken is to join hedge fund manager Thames River Capital.

COMPANIES are scrapping employee share options in favour of long-term incentive plans to reward performance, new research shows.

GLOBAL - Global index provider MSCI Barra will be launching some 20,000 new indices over the next few months in order to remain in step with growing trends in pension fund investments.

Schemes and sponsors should not fool themselves that accounting standard FRS17 gives a true value of liabilities, actuaries warn.

GLOBAL - The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and Enhanced Analytics Initiative (EAI) have aligned their interests in a formal agreement.