Europe

UK - One-in-five people in their 20s will invest in the stock market to boost retirement funds, research from the Halifax ShareBuilder Index reveals.

UK - Brewing firm Whitbread has guaranteed funding for its £1.1bn final salary scheme for at least another 15 years.

DENMARK - Massive Danish pension fund ATP has published the annual accounts for 2002 for its Danish property investments.

UK - Hazell Carr Pensions Consulting has backed government plans to simplify pension scheme administration.

UK - Friends Provident has hit out at the government's tax simplification proposals for being ill-thought through.

FRANCE - AXA Investment Managers said it enjoyed a successful year in 2002, with an 11% increase in total net revenues and an 8% rise in operating income year-on-year from 2001.

SCOTLAND - Paul Murray, who joined Deutsche Bank Capital Partners in 2000 as a founding partner, has joined Edinburgh-based fund manager, Martin Currie, as managing director of its enlarged private equity team.

UK - Transport & General Workers' Union has called on the government to scrap means-tested benefits and establish a minimum income standard in its place.

EUROPE - Deutsche Börse is rounding out its management team with Axel Nawrath and Jürgen Röthig as managing directors.

UK - The FTSE Group has announced a new set of human rights criteria for the socially responsible index series FTSE4Good.