Europe

UK - Nearly 40% of small to medium-sized final salary schemes are in danger of being closed due to funding fears and regulatory uncertainty, SEI claims.

EUROPE - Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has told some of Europe's leading companies to buck-up pension fund deficits or face being downgraded.

UK - Isis Equity Partners, a unit of Isis Asset Management, has made a new appointment.

UK - Mellon Global Alternative Investments has hired Stuart Slater as senior research analyst.

UK - Investec Asset Management has strengthened its global equity team with the appointment of Mark Breedon as a fund manager for emerging markets.

UK - The £3bn London Regional Transport Pension Fund has halved its foreign exchange transaction costs by adopting Record Currency Management monitoring services.

UK - At the AGM of the UK's Association of Property Unit Trusts Simon Radford, chief executive of Atlantic Fund Management, was elected as the new chairman, succeeding Ian Mason.

UK - Chancellor Gordon Brown's decision to axe advanced corporation tax has cost pension schemes almost £30bn, the Institute for Fiscal Studies claims.

UK - A Labour MP has attacked the "blue-eyed boy" trustee system of failing pension scheme members and wants the whole structure reformed.

LUXEMBOURG - The Luxembourg House of Parliament has voted in favour of two European directives regarding undertakings for collective investment adopted by the European Parliament and the EU Council on 21 January 2002.