Europe

UK - JPMorgan Investor Services has given its backing to the Institute of Public Policy Research's (IPPR) report on pensions reforms in the UK, despite the Government's recent dismissal of the findings as "simplistic and misguided".

UK - Companies affected by rating agencies' aggressive downgrading of corporate bonds could turn their backs on issuing such debt.

UK - The Association for Institutional Multi Manager Investing (AIMMI) was formally inaugurated on February 25, 2002.

UK - Martin Currie has appointed David Watts, former Gartmore chief executive officer, as a non-executive director.

UK - Britannic Asset Management is boosting its fixed interest team with the appointment of Phil Heaney as investment manager with responsibility for credit analysis.

UK - Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has cut its pension funds' equity allocation in favour of bonds.

UK - David Curry's private member's Bill on annuity reform has passed through to its next phase after government moves to crush it were defeated at the committee stage.

UK - Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has backed more than 20 institutional investors who have written to the Treasury to tell it the fund management industry no longer trusts the Government in the wake of the collapse of Railtrack.

UK - Fidelity Investments has launched a UK Long Corporate Bond Fund, aimed at small and medium-sized pension schemes.

UK - Unison, the UK's largest trade union, is expected to vent its concerns today around the raising of the retirement age put forward by the Institute of Public Policy and Research (IPPR).