Investment

US/UK - Financial legislation pending in the US threatens to overwhelm, emasculate, and undermine independence of the Securities & Exchange Commission, according to the watchdog's former chairman.

Defined contribution scheme members have seen annual pension income plummet by more than £1000 a year as a result of stock market falls since the beginning of May, Aon Consulting research reveals.

PIMCO has brought its new active equity strategy to the UK with the launch of the PIMCO EqS Pathfinder Fund and the PIMCO EqS Pathfinder Europe Fund.

UK - Resolution Group, the consolidation vehicle which bought Friends Provident last year, is in talks to buy AXA UK's annuity, protection and group pensions business for £2.75bn (US$4bn).

BP is considering plans to defer payment of its next dividend to shareholders by placing the money in an escrow account until the full scale of the company's liabilities from the Gulf of Mexico disaster can be determined, sources claim.

US - The credit ratings agency Fitch has warned that the potential for steep pension funding increases over the next two to three years could be crippling for US sponsors with underfunded plans.

CANADA - Canadian finance minister James Flaherty called for local finance ministers to support his plans to give tax incentives and modify pension standards to boost the defined contribution market, and to bring changes to the Canada Pension Plan.

GLOBAL - The European Central Bank will have to "engage in de facto fiscal policy" if the region's authorities wish to avoid a sovereign bankruptcy, according to Paul McCulley, a managing director at Pacific Investment Management Co.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster may not only be catastrophic for the environment.

Why Obama is wrong to hammer BP