Europe

UK - The Nestlé UK Pension Fund is changing its defined benefit scheme from a final salary to career average.

UK - The expected charging structure for the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) has been announced by the UK government.

UK - Schemes looking to cut investment costs through the use of pooled funds actually face 30% higher annual manager fees, Lane Clark & Peacock warned.

UK - The Pensions Regulator is appealing a court decision to stop its attempts to seek £2.1bn (US$3.2bn) from Nortel Networks on behalf of the struggling UK pension scheme.

UK - The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has confirmed it will no longer allow companies to use the corridor method in their accounting.

EUROPE/US - The European Commission has hit back at a letter by US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner warning the implementation of the hedge funds directive could cause a transatlantic rift by discriminating against US firms.

UK - The National Association of Pension Funds is set to launch a major review into the standards used for accounting for pensions.

UK - Pensions could play a pivotal role in how the voting swings in the general election, Nigel Waterson says.

UK - The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) will diversify its assets to gain better returns while maintaining the same level of risk, the lifeboat fund said.

UK/GLOBAL - The aggregate funding position of the 7400 defined benefit funds monitored by the Pension Protection Fund improved to a deficit of £15.1bn (US$22.6bn) in February.