Europe

NETHERLANDS/BELGIUM - A group of Dutch and Belgian investors is planning to sue ABN Amro and KBC who acted as counterparties in trades with Lehman Brothers and Ernst & Young who audited the bank's accounts.

EUROPE/FRANCE - The European Commission has told France to change tax rules that penalise foreign pension and investment funds.

UK - Calculation of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) levy should be changed so schemes can rely on specific estimates for a number of years, a steering group recommended.

UK/GLOBAL - The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) decided to sell its stake in Océ to Canon after the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeals rejected the pension fund's request to investigate Canon's tender offer to buy Océ.

EUROPE - The European Parliament economic and monetary affairs committee (EP) reached a compromise agreement on the scope of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive that could allow non EU-domiciled funds to be marketed in Europe.

UK - The latest National Association of Pension Funds gathering in Edinburgh found three or four hundred industry veterans in astonishingly good spirits, considering their frankly dire predicament.

UK - JENNA TOWLER talks to pensions minister ANGELA EAGLE about Labour's plans for the pensions landscape - should it retain office.

EUROPE - European Union finance ministers failed to agree on a draft law to regulate hedge funds and private equity firms, which the U.K. said could hurt London's competitiveness as a financial centre.

UK - British Airways' resolution with unions over its £3.7bn (US$5.7bn) deficit is encouraging but will not solve the problem in the long term, industry experts warned.

ITALY - Italy's largest pension fund Fondo Cometa has appointed BNP Paribas as its new custodian for its €5bn (US$6.8bn) portfolio.