Europe

UK - Merrill Lynch has held a top level summit with consultants to convince them that its troubled fund management arm has a viable future.

UK - Plunging stock markets have wiped nearly £5bn off the value of the Universities Superannuation Scheme's assets in the past seven months.

UK - Insurers are being forced to limit the size of bulk annuity buyouts because the corporate bond market is saturated by the volume of scheme wind-ups.

UK - Church of England dioceses have voted overwhelmingly to retain the church's £135m defined benefit scheme.

UK - Government plans for the partial privatisation of London Underground could be threatened by scheme deficits at support services firms Amey and WS Atkins.

UK - Trustees have been given the green light to withhold payouts to pensioners to recover any overpayments.

UK - Morley Fund Management has appointed Sarah Woods, Neil McLeod and Joel Lyndsay to its property team.

TURKEY - Turkey should develop its capital markets by reviewing conflicts of interest issues arising from bank ownership of most non-bank intermediaries, such as pension funds and insurance companies, according to the latest report from the Organisation...

UK - Frank Russell has hired Jeffrey Geller to fill a newly-created senior level role to focus on alternative investments.

UK - Scottish Life has seen new business from occupational pension schemes increase 52% to £41.4m for the year to the end of September.