Europe

The Danish pensions industry has retained its crown as the best pension system in Europe. Andrew Sheen examines how this was achieved

EUROPE - The global economic slowdown will increase available carbon trading licenses in the European emissions trading scheme (ETS) by almost half, lowering the price of carbon-based exchange traded funds (ETFs) and commodities (ETCs), analyst IDEAcarbon...

UK - Taxpayers could be forced to meet up to three-quarters of any shortfall in the British Telecom Pension Scheme should it wind-up, an independent consultant warns.

UK - The number of scheme members requesting retirement and transfer value quotes jumped by more than 60% in September, Aon Consulting says.

FINLAND - The €27bn (US$34.6bn) Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company has further reduced its investments in listed shares, MandateWire reports.

UK - Latest government statistics on mortality rates should be interpreted with care, Watson Wyatt has said.

UK - Trustees of the largest 200 privately sponsored pension plans may have to ask their sponsoring companies for an addition £45bn (US$73.9bn) for the next five years to make up for huge shortfalls, Aon has warned.

DENMARK - Danish pension fund giant ATP has confirmed its commitment to raise all current and future pensions by 2%, despite reporting a 1.4% loss on its investment return for the first nine months of 2008.

UK - Oil giant Shell is set to implement changes to its UK pension scheme next year which will include increasing the retirement age for new workers from 60 to 65.

UK - The House of Lords voted overwhelmingly to keep the age of compulsory annuitisation at 75 during the latest Pensions Bill debate.