Europe

UK - Mercer Investment Consulting's UK equity manager recommendations outperformed the FTSE All-Share by 2.6% for the year ending December 2003.

UK - Former Gartmore Investment management chairman Paul Myners has been appointed as interim chairman of Marks & Spencer.

UK - Invesco Perpetual UK's Equity Fund was the most popular fund link in Scottish Life's pension range in the first three months of the year for the second time running.

UK - Hermes Pensions Management is suing financial services giant Citigroup along with auditors Grant Thornton and Deloitte for their part in the collapse of Parmalat.

UK - Consulting firm Hewitt has warned of "workforce planning time bomb" as a result of a majority of defined contribution scheme members failing to grasp the funding levels required to build sufficient savings for retirement.

EUROPE - JPMorgan has hired John Minderides as head of its transition management business in the EMEA region.

UK - More employers need to set up hybrid, career average and cash balance pension schemes rather than defined contribution plans, consultants say.

EUROPE - Northern Trust has appointed Anne-Lise Winge as head of European sales for Northern Trust's institutional asset servicing businesses.

UK - Changes to the wording of trust law to reflect increased expectations of trustee competence are being considered by the government.

FRANCE - The e16bn French Pensions Reserve fund (FRR) is tendering for a consultant to provide "best execution" of its mandates.