Europe

UK - Mellon Global Alternative Investments (MGAI), a UK asset management subsidiary of US-headquartered Mellon Financial Corporation, has hired Stuart Slater as senior research analyst.

UK - The government is facing a test case over whether it is liable to pay the pensions of employees with insolvent employers.

UK - New international accounting rules will be fundamentally the same as FRS17, delegates at the recent NAPF autumn conference were warned.

UK - Employers will be forced to close final salary schemes if new actuarial projections on mortality rates are correct, industry experts claim.

UK - Institutional confidence in property investment has soared over the past year, a survey by Baring, Houston & Saunders shows.

EUROPE - Corporate social responsibility is a working reality in Europe and not another passing trend, a report from a European business group says.

UK - Goldman Sachs Asset Management has appointed Philip Moffitt as co-head of global fixed income and currency.

UK/MYANMAR - Tobacco giant BAT is being quizzed about its operations in Myanmar (Burma) by leading socially responsible investor Insight Investment - the asset management arm of HBOS.

EUROPE - A European Court of Justice ruling will set back the timetable for cross-border pension schemes by five years, PricewaterhouseCoopers claims.

UK - Senior industry figures have attacked the government for backtracking on its plans for "radical" pensions reform.