Europe

UK - Defined benefit (DB) schemes ended last week with a £33bn (US$60.8bn) surplus but remain volatile, Watson Wyatt has said.

UK - The creation of the giant banking group following the merger of Lloyds TSB (Lloyds) and HBOS will have little immediate effect on pension fund portfolios, it has been claimed.

UK - The Pensions Regulator has issued guidelines on effective communication with pension scheme members.

UK - Legal & General (L&G) has defended changes to its defined benefit (DB) scheme following criticism from union Unite.

UK - The £550m (US$1bn) London Borough of Croydon pension fund has placed four separate mandates worth up to £500m out to tender, representing an almost entire restructuring of its portfolio.

UK - Local authority pension funds' non-participation in US securities class actions resulted in over £200m ($365m) being left on the table, according to GOAL Group.

DENMARK - The DKK55bn (US$10.6bn) Danish insurer SEB Pension has announced it will keep its high exposure to fixed income and alternative investments unchanged this year, despite posting negative returns on these asset classes for the first half of 2008,...

UK - Schemes with liability-driven investment strategies constructed using Lehman Brothers swaps and derivatives will face significant upheaval, industry experts say.

ITALY/US - Continuing uncertainty over the international impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers has forced the Italian pension fund regulator and Texas Teachers Retirement System (TRS) to clarify their positions on the defunct bank.

UK - SCA Packaging workers have settled on a pay deal at the expense of their defined benefit (DB) pension scheme.