Europe

UK/DENMARK - Former Conservative pensions spokesman Nigel Waterson has joined Danish pension fund ATP to help it launch an alternative to the National Employment Savings Trust.

ITALY - Mercer has strengthened its management team in Italy with four internal appointments.

UK - Former Treasury Select Committee chairman Lord McFall will direct an independent inquiry into the failings of the current private pension system, as new figures show there has been the equivalent of one piece of fresh pension legislation every week...

UK/US - Towers Watson has completed its acquisition of consulting and software company EMB.

UK - The trustees of the Pall (UK) Pension Fund have completed a longevity hedge for non-retired members with J.P. Morgan.

UK - The Pension Protection Fund will implement its reworked pension protection levy framework from 2012/13, it announced today.

EUROPE/US - Pension funds and other institutional investors are shifting away from traditional equity and bond allocations in favour of alternative asset classes, research from bfinance shows.

EUROPE - An EU ruling to equalise annuity rates for men and women could be finalised as soon as 1 March.

DENMARK - The Danish government has proposed to phase out the nation's early retirement scheme to save DKK18bn ($3.3bn) by 2020.

UK - BT has announced Paul Spencer will become trustee chairman of the £35bn ($56bn) BT Pension Scheme on 1 March.