Europe

EUROPE - Plans by the European Union to introduce Solvency II- type regulations to the pensions industry could hinder investments in real estate, delegates at the European Association for Investors in Non-listed Real Estate Vehicles (INREV) seminar heard....

SPAIN - The Spanish government will raise the retirement age today in a renewed bid to restore investor confidence after a €20bn ($27bn) plan to shore up savings banks failed to tame the nation's borrowing costs.

UK/US - State Street has teamed up with F&C Investments to provide an environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting service to help investors meet their stewardship goals.

UK - The Department for Work and Pensions is to take action to stop firms using differences between defined contribution regulations to cut scheme costs when faced with auto-enrolment.

UK - Unite has issued details of the legal action it is taking against Ford over the pensions advice it gave to former employees.

EUROPE - European leaders are winning over investors as they try to keep the single-currency bloc intact, raising the appeal of the region's so-called rescue bonds, said Timo Loeyttyniemi, the head of Finland's state pension fund.

UK - Friends Provident's Trevor Matthews is to step down as chief executive and hand over the reins to former Scottish Widows chief Andy Briggs.

GERMANY/UK - Germany has replaced the UK as the preferred location for investment in non-listed real estate funds, new research shows.

UK - Changes to defined benefit indexation have saved FTSE100 schemes more than £15bn($23.6bn), Towers Watson estimates.

UK - Regulatory focus on plugging scheme deficits quickly is "unhelpful" and could actually damage businesses and pension funds, Hymans Robertson warns.