Europe

EUROPE - The European Portability Directive which lost its commitment to cross-border transfer rights in October has hit another obstacle, with member states unable to agree on a common vesting period.

UK - The London Borough of Enfield pension fund has pulled £25m (US$51m) from its allocation to UK property in favour of European markets.

UK - The Conservative Party has said it will not guarantee its support for the Pensions Bill unless changes to means testing are made.

UK - Steve Ilott, head of fixed income at Aberdeen Asset Management, is to hand over the running of the group's fixed income business to his colleague Gary Bartlett.

UK - Currency overlay managers failed to achieve positive returns in Q3, for the first time in 12 months, according to statistics released by BNY Mellon Asset Servicing.

UK - Prime minister Gordon Brown has told parliament he expects the government will be able to guarantee 90% of the pensions lost as a result of company schemes collapsing.

NORWAY - Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) has appointed Yngve Slyngstad to succeed Knut N Kjær as its executive director.

UK - The gap between directors and their workers' pensions benefits may be closing, according to research by Xafinity Consulting.

UK - Defined benefit (DB) schemes will now be able to use bonds to immunise against inflation and market risk, according to PensionsFirst.

UK - The prime minister and chancellor are preventing the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) from rescuing the pensioners whose company schemes collapsed since 1997, according to the Pensions Action Group (PAG).