Europe

UK - The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) is urging investors to stay calm following stock market dives in the wake of the WorldCom accounting scandal.

UK - Union proposals for compulsory pension contributions from both employers and employees have been slammed as a "tax on the poor" by Standard Life.

UK - New Faculty of Actuaries president Tom Ross has called on actuaries to become better communicators as well as pension experts.

UK - Software consultancy Open Seas is offering a data protection system for pension funds which, it says, will automatically prevent unauthorised access to electronic files.

UK - Small fund management houses fear they will be hit harder by the new pension fund cost disclosure than their larger rivals.

UK - Most FTSE100 companies lack fully independent renumeration committees, research by the Co-operative Insurance Society shows.

UK - Final salary scheme closures will boost the take-up of self-invested personal pensions, Jupiter Asset Management says.

UK - Friends Ivory & Sime's private equity unit ISIS Capital has invested £5.5m in BodyCare International.

US/EUROPE - Instinet Group and Citibank have joined forces to launch a new currency trading service.

UK - IT specialist Trema has teamed up with Hewlett Packard to provide support services for clients using its treasury, risk, cash and asset management straight-through processing software.