Europe

UK - The Wesleyan Assurance Society with-profits life and pension fund produced an impressive 17% gross investment return last year, despite an 80% investment in equities.

UK - Pensions Investment Research Consultants recommended shareholders vote against "excessive rewards" for directors of the merged ITV network.

UK - Labour backbenchers have pledged to "campaign like fury" against the government to win compensation for scheme members affected by company closures.

EUROPE - Investment managers predict European equities will continue to recover this year, a survey by Mercer Investment Consulting shows.

UK - Rising equity markets have slashed scheme deficits at Britain's largest companies by over 50% to £50bn, new research shows.

UK - The GMB union is calling for the Pension Protection Fund to be introduced retrospectively following the wind-up of another UK pension scheme.

UK - Butterfield Private Bank is to hire seven new business development managers in a bid to "maintain high levels of service" to professional advisers.

UK - Speakers at a recent Society of Pension Consultants conference in the UK aired hard truths, arguing for a rise in the retirement age, urging creative blends of pensions schemes and lambasting fund professionals for overly relying on benchmarks.

EUROPE - Initiative Finanzstandort Deutschland (IFD), the working party set up to stimulate Germany's financial services industry, has come forward with its first recommendations, including plans to simplify the private pension system.

UK/NETHERLANDS - The Dutch-based Blue Sky Group, managers of the pension assets for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, has appointed Pimco to a e218m global real return mandate.