Europe

UK - Ian McCartney, the new UK pensions minister, defended the take-up rate of stakeholder pensions whilst outlining outlining some of his aims for the new Department of Work and Pensions at a National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) conference in...

UK - One agm and one egm are worthy of note in the week starting December 3, according to corporate governance specialists Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).

UK - As John Richards came to the end of his cross-examination on Wednesday he told the High Court that he thought the level of risk in the Unilever portfolio managed by Alistair Lennard was high but within acceptable limits.

UK - Legal & General Investment Management has leapt to the top of the the Hymans Robertson league table for UK pension fund managers. In the firm's annual "Big 50" report, L&G managed £64.775bn of pension money compared to Merrill Lynch Investment Managers...

UK - John Ralfe, head of corporate finance at the UK pharmaceuticals chain Boots, has defended his pension scheme's controversial move out of equities, claiming that there's nothing magic about holding equities.

UK - Gissings has appointed Allen Green as senior manager of its marketing team.

UK - The British Treasury is blocking annuity reform because it would lead to an unsustainable tax leakage, campaigners claim.

UK - Peter Stanyer admitted in the High Court on Thursday that Mercury Asset Management discussed in early 1996 whether a client may "seek compensation" if it underperformed and active risk figures in the portfolio were shown to have broken agreed boundaries....

ASIA/EUROPE - Swiss financial giant Credit Suisse Group has made additional elections to its international advisory board (IAB) in a bid to leverage activities in Asia and Germany.

UK - GE Asset Management (GEAM), the European fund management arm of the General Electric Company has hired Gary Walker as regional director of institutional sales and marketing in a bid to leverage business in the UK and Ireland.