Europe

UK - Schroders has taken yet another blow after being dumped from an equities portfolio at one of the country's largest local authority schemes.

UK - Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has announced its plans to stop soft commissioning for pension fund clients.

UK - Over half of the companies in the UK will see a reduction in their balance sheet assets as a result of FRS17, according to William M Mercer.

UK - Pension funds could benefit by a more diversified bond portfolio, according to Morley Fund Management.

UK - Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) is set to launch a multi-manager package for smaller UK defined benefit pension schemes. It will be the first time that MLIM has offered products of external managers to institutional clients.

DENMARK- Denmark is well on the way to kerbing problems posed by its ageing populous if new figures from the European Commission are anything to go by.

UK - Debates surrounding the trashing of final salary schemes were fuelled this week when WM Company founder Dugald Eadie accused company directors of allowing greed and manipulation to drive their decisions.

UK - The UK's fund management companies could soon become nothing more than marketing machines in the wake of the Unilever versus Merrill Lynch case, according to ex-Phillips & Drew CIO Tony Dye.

UK - Leading passive managers have seen a steady increase in their index tracking business since the beginning of this year.

UK - Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) has announced that Merrill Lynch Property Fund, with its 20 year track record of investment in UK commercial property has moved offshore to Jersey.