Europe

Andrew Sheen travels to Belgium and discovers this country of predominately small pension funds is labouring with the implementation of OFP reforms and harbouring dreams of becoming Europe's cross-border pension hub

UK - Personal Accounts will lead to a widespread review of pensions and closure of existing schemes in smaller firms, the Association of Consulting Actuaries (ACA) warns.

UK - Estimates of the total size of the bulk annuity buyout market for pension funds may have been overvalued by as much as £7bn (US$12.5bn), actuaries Punter Southall have suggested.

SPAIN - Spanish pension funds' estimated median returns are positive for the month of August in all the three classes of assets they hold, despite median year to date estimated returns of -3.6%, a survey by Mercer has found.

UK - Local authority pension schemes will miss out on a good governance opportunity if draft proposals from Communities and Local Government (CLG) are introduced, Mercer warns.

UK - Trade union GMB has called on the government to instruct energy regulator Ofgem to drop proposals to cut workers pensions.

UK - Thousands more people are now receiving compensation from the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), latest figures reveal.

UK - Cable & Wireless (C&W) and Prudential have signed the first £1bn (US$1.8bn) bulk annuities pension deal.

UK - The Pensions Regulator has demanded a private equity firm pay an £8m (US$14.2m) pension fund top-up to a firm it sold almost a year ago.

UK - Directors at the UK's top companies enjoy pensions worth up to 25 times more than most staff pensions, according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC).