Europe

UK - Occupational pensions provision is "close to crisis" and the willingness of employers to sponsor schemes is weakening dangerously, the Pensions Management Institute warns.

UK - Actuaries ending work on the pensions review this year are unlikely to satisfy the "severe" shortage in the profession.

UK - According to the Drawdown Bureau, the government's delayed consultation, Modernising Annuities, has failed to address one significant consumer issue: it offers no escape from compulsory annuitisation.

UK - Schroders has launched its new investor relations web site, accessible fat www.schroders.com.

UK - Martin Currie, the independent Edinburgh-based investment manager, has strengthened its UK equity team by hiring David Urch from Merrill Lynch in London, where he managed around £1.5bn for mainly institutional clients.

UK - Legal & General's investments chief David Rough is set to take up a non-executive director's position at Land Securities, the commercial real estate management firm.

UK - The £1.4bn Leicestershire County Council Pension Fund has appointed Adam Street Partners to manage the fund's first foray into private equity. Leicestershire also said that it has put its hedge fund considerations on hold.

UK - An asset liability study penned in for next year at the £1.26bn Aberdeen City Council could see a reduction in its equity holdings, the globalisation of a private equity folder and the introduction of a new hedge fund portfolio.

UK - The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) and the Inland Revenue have published a review document that aims to modernise pension annuities, giving pensioners more choice, information and control over their retirement income.

UK - Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) has launched a new web-based tool to optimise commission spend, in response to questions raised in the Myners' Review about how commissions are used.