Europe

UK - IFA Aitchison & Colegrave is holding four seminars focusing on the Green Paper.

UK - Baring Asset Management has boosted its fixed income capability with two hires.

UK - Returns on index equity funds do not justify their risk when compared to corporate bonds, Isis Asset Management maintains.

FRANCE -French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin took a softly-softly line on pensions reform in a recent speech to the French Economic and Social Council in the wake of union-led demonstrations by more than 300,000 people against pensions reform.

UK - Tax relief on pension contributions should be changed in a bid to tackle the growing pension crisis, new independent research proposes.

UK - The government has announced there will be no change to the general levy rates paid by occupational and personal pension schemes in the year to April 2004.

UK - Consultants' claims that small schemes do not receive enough risk diversification from segregated property portfolios are "overstated", MNPA claims.

UK - A clampdown by the Accounting Standards Board on firms that fail to disclose accurate company turnover figures has been welcomed by pension funds.

UK - Pointon York SIPP Solutions is set to launch a nationwide radio advertising campaign.

UK - A sharp rise in life expectancy for men has forced insurance giant Aviva to boost its annuitant mortality reserves by £123m.