Europe

UK - Most consultancy practices are considering branching out into fund management to meet client needs and to gain higher fees, industry sources claim.

UK - Companies hoping for a reprieve from the implementation of FRS17 will be disappointed, Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow principal Martin Lowes warns.

UK - Northern Trust has been appointed global custodian to the £1bn TotalFinaElf UK Pension Plan.

UK - Paying tax on lump sum pension payments over £50,000 will be the price workers will pay for greater retirement planning flexibility, a pensions manager warns.

UK - A new pensions Act will take until 2005 to implement and be too late to save private pension saving, Mercer Human Resource Consulting warns.

SCOTLAND - The Department for International Development (DFID) in East Kilbride is looking for a service provider to transfer pension payments by electronic credit transfer to overseas bank accounts.

UK - Printing group St Ives has revealed a £26.3m FRS17 deficit in its scheme for the year to the end of August.

UK - Hourly-paid members of the £600m Jaguar Cars Pension Plan have approved a £2m discretionary early retirement programme.

UK - Dorchester County Council Pension Fund is looking for a new actuary.

UK - Some of the UK's largest pension funds are teaming up withtop fund managers to call for radical change in the way companies monitor themselves.