Europe

UK - Telecoms giant BT has committed to funding £2.8bn over the next 10 years to its defined benefit pension scheme (BTPS), after seeing its deficit surge to £3.4bn under the new, "more conservative" actuarial methodology.

EUROPE - The growth in occupational pension funds will accelerate in the coming decades due to governments "shirking" responsibility for pension risks.

UK - The £465m London Borough of Waltham Forest Pension Fund has put its entire fund up for tender, after receiving advice to switch from multi-asset management to specialist management.

BELGIUM - The demand for Liability Driven Investments (LDI) is unlikely to pick up in Belgium given its unsuitability to local pension funds, industry players have agreed.

RUSSIA - Russian state pensions for 2007 have been increased by 15.4% despite the fact the Russian Pension Fund (RPF) is experiencing significant funding troubles.

UK - Paternoster has secured its 10th buy-out deal after taking on the Chartered Accountants' Employees Superannuation Scheme in a deal worth "between £10m-£50m".

UK - The Pensions Regulator has issued a discussion paper and draft guidance to help pension scheme trustees identify deals that would lead to sponsoring employers abandoning their pension plans.

EUROPE - The Members of European Parliament (MEP) Pension Fund has made its first property investment after awarding a €10m mandate to Arlington Securities.

UK - The government has come under fire as various quarters of the pension industry have criticised its plan for Personal Accounts as "a bad day for voluntary pensions provision" and merely "creating more questions than answers".

UK - Investment managers are facing difficulties in calculating the true cost of the integration of MiFID programmes into their existing projects, Investit Intelligence has found.