Europe

UK - The Pension Protection Fund has confirmed it aims to collect an overall levy of £600m ($933m) in 2011/12.

EUROPE - Pension funds are moving deeper into alternatives as they reduce their exposure to equities, Mercer European head of investment consulting Tom Geraghty believes.

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UK - The Consumer Price Index is a bad measure for uprating pensions and needs to be replaced with a measure to include housing costs, the Royal Statistical Society says.

UK - Dutch manager Mn Services plans to sue Royal Bank of Scotland in the UK over losses relating to sub-prime mortgages and has been in discussions with other European schemes about joining the suit.

UK - Pension buyouts are set to break all records next year, after deals for the first three quarters of 2010 exceeded all of 2009, Pension Capital Strategies says.

FRANCE/NETHERLANDS - Dutch pension fund manager PGGM is researching ways it can transfer longevity risk off its balance sheet, managing director Erik Goris said.

DENMARK - The ATP Supervisory Board has allocated DKK23bn ($4.1bn) to help safeguard the fund against rising Danish life expectancy.

FRANCE - Dutch regulations are "killing" pension funds by using a discount rate that forces them to de-risk, said Anton van Nunen, director of Van Nunen & Partners.

UK - Ofcom has confirmed it will not allow BT to fund its £6.6bn ($10.3bn) scheme deficit through charges it levies on competitors for telecoms services.