Europe

UK - The NAPF must embrace defined contribution plans or wither along with defined benefit schemes, EMAP group benefits manager Ralph Turner has warned.

UK - The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum has advised its members to vote against a proposed executive share option scheme at Selfridges.

UK - The head of Global Investors Services at HSBC, Steve Crockford, is to step down from his post.

Europe - Troubled group Zurich Financial Services (Zurich) has finally tied up its transactions with Deutsche Bank, including the sale of some its European fund management operations.

UK - Prudential M&G is set to further develop its fixed income business in the UK with the hire of Bernard Abrahamsen as director of fixed income in its institutional team.

UK - Mercer Investment Consulting has negotiated a performance-related fee deal with Caterpillar Pension Fund.

UK/ITALY - Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), the asset management of Lloyds TSB is to extend its reach into the Italian institutional market with a co-operation deal and with investment bank Cofiri Sim.

NORWAY/GLOBAL - Norges Bank Investment Management is tendering new global external active mandates for the giant Norwegian Government Petroleum Fund (Statens Petroleumsfond), with a combined value of US$5.5bn.

UK - The £3.3bn London Regional Transport pension fund has hired Inalytics and Euraplan to provide it with quarterly transaction costs analysis reports.

UK - The revamped £600m Sara Lee UK Pension Plan is looking to review its current investment strategy following the recent appointment of Mercer Human Resource Consulting as a bundled adviser.