Europe

The London Borough of Wandsworth pension scheme has appointed Northern Trust to provide global custody and investment accounting services to £750m ($1.2bn) of assets.

FRANCE - French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to modify his bill to overhaul the pension system in response to strikes and demonstrations by workers, though he won't retreat on raising the retirement age.

UK - A group of disgruntled pension funds is threatening litigation against investment giant Henderson after one of its funds lost more than 60% of its value during the credit crunch.

ITALY - Fondo Previdenziale Pegaso, the pension fund for employees in the Italian utility services, has hired State Street Global Advisors to run a €60m (US$76m) active fixed income mandate.

NETHERLANDS/UK - Dutch firm Royal Philips Electronics is selling its entire stake in NXP Semiconductors to its UK pension fund.

UK - PricewaterhouseCoopers is to close its two defined benefit pension schemes to future accrual from next April.

ASIA/UK - City Financial has launched an Asia fund of hedge funds aimed at pension funds and other institutional investors.

UK - Pension liabilities for UK private sector final salary pension schemes reached £1.2trn ($1.8trn) in August.

UK - Gordon Brown has been accused of attempting to blackmail Tony Blair to drop Adair Turner's revolutionary pension reform proposals.

UK - Government should look to use public-private partnerships to address taxpayer exposure to defined benefit longevity risk, Swiss Re says.