Investment

EUROPE - The UK government is understood to be prepared to shoot down proposals for a financial transaction tax being mooted by Germany and France.

The European Central Bank will dodge quantitative easing to solve the eurozone sovereign debt crisis because its mandate does not allow it, an Aegon fixed income manager says.

More than 80% of scheme managers agree the cost transparency of defined contribution schemes needs to be improved to make them more simple, clear and comparable for members.

Pension funds' reaction to last week's market turbulence show governance standards have improved since the 2008 market crash, with many schemes moving to re-risk their portfolios, according to market experts.

Trade union Unison has further rebuked a government plan to cut local government pension costs, labelling it a "dangerous financial gamble" for UK equity markets.

NETHERLANDS - Members of the Dutch union FNV Bondgenoten have voted against government pension proposals which they claim would shift risk from the employer entirely to the employee, claiming they would lead to a "casino retirement".

Some Royal Mail Pension Plan scheme members' pension payments were 1.5 percentage points greater than others due to the CPI switch, annual accounts show.

The corporate defined contribution market in Europe is set to grow by 11.5% per year to 2014, research by Cerulli predicts.

EUROPE - The corporate defined contribution (DC) market in Europe is set to grow by 11.5% per year to 2014, research by Cerulli predicts.

LV= Asset Management said it expects to see some staff redundancies as it finalises its deal to outsource the management of its funds to Threadneedle.