Europe

UK - Lloyds TSB has appointed Hewitt Associates to provide consulting advice on risk and governance for its pension schemes.

UK - Lehman Brothers International and Legal & General have been appointed as transition managers by the Strathclyde Pension Fund.

UK - The row over pension fund investment in private equity took another turn today as the GMB union national secretary condemed the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association's (BVCA) new working group as "too little, too late".

SWITZERLAND - Dexia Asset Management saw its assets under management reach €105.2bn by year end, up 16.1% (14.6bn) on 2005.

UK - Unilever is to close it's final salary pension scheme to new employees in the UK.

UK - Actuaries have hit back at claims from a leading academic criticising their work and the resulting effects on pension investments.

UK - The Department of Health has rejected accusations by the Conservatives that its pension scheme's debt has deepened by £61bn in two years.

UK - The deadline for pensions schemes of insolvent companies to qualify for the government's Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) has been extended to 31 August 2007.

BELGIUM - Belgian pension fund returns fell by 6.2% to 8.76% over 2006, compared to their 2005 performance of 14.96%.

NORWAY - The 28 external managers for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund equity portfolio lost NOK6.1bn (€757m) over 2006, missing their benchmarks for the first time since the fund's inception.