Europe

UK - Ferry firm Wightlink is retaining its defined benefit scheme after more than half of its employees voted to strike if the plan was axed.

UK - Friends Ivory & Sime has completed the merger of its sales team following its takeover of Royal & SunAlliance Investments in May.

UK - Hargreaves Lansdown has added three pensions calculators to its website.

UK - Shareholder voting has increased marginally this year, according to proxy voting agency Manifest Information Systems.

UK - Momentum Financial Services is offering companies an independent review of their pension provision with its newly launched benefit check service.

UK - In August, ratings agency Standard & Poor's identified 49 of the weakest-rated global issuers, representing US$43bn in rated bonds.

UK - Law firm Sacker & Partners has set up a scheme-in-transition unit to help clients deal with the legal issues arising from changing employees' pension benefits.

UK - Law firm Halliwell Landau is to set up an employment and pensions division in London.

UK - Simplification Report author Alan Pickering has urged the industry to slash red tape, irrespective of the government's green paper on pensions.

UK - Barclays Global Investors believes UK equities will outperform UK bonds over the next 10 years by 3.75 percentage points a year.