Europe

UK - Standard Life has agreed to compensate around 97,000 customers who lost out when its Pension Sterling Fund fell by 4.8% last month.

EUROPE - British Telecom could have to pay the Pension Protection Fund £16.6m (US$23.9m) after its partial exemption from levies was declared illegal by the European Commission.

EUROPE - Style or strategic exchange traded funds (ETFs), offering investors short or leveraged positions, now account for a third of total European ETF turnover, data from Deutsche Bank reveals.

UK - The £1bn (US$1.47bn) Oxfordshire County Council pension fund has appointed Peter Davies as independent adviser to the scheme.

UK - Pension funds have huge and unrealised potential to influence the corporate governance of the companies they invest in, Hermes Equity Ownership Services chief executive Colin Melvin claims.

UK - Bulk annuity business nearly tripled to £8.2bn (US$12.3bn) in 2008, latest research from Aon Consulting reveals.

EUROPE - The European exchange traded fund (ETF) market grew by over 6% in 2008 to reach a total assets under management (AuM) in excess of €91bn (US$118bn), according to Lyxor Asset Management.

ITALY - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Italian government to implement further pension reforms in order to shore up the country's fiscal framework.

UK - Chuo Mitsui Trust International, the global arm of Chuo Mitsui Trust and Banking, has launched a London office in a move to expand its investment management business outside Japan.

UK - The Vivendi 2008 Pensioners' Scheme is set to buyout its pensioner benefits through a deal with MetLife Assurance.