Europe

UK - Shareholders at the UK's largest independent quoted merchant bank have ignored pension funds and re-elected two board members.

UK - A shock u-turn by Danish shipping giant Maersk to pay the full pensions of employees hit by its final salary windup has scored praise from the industry and has been hailed as a victory for workers caught in similar closures.

UK/EU - New EU pension rules will slash administration costs for multinational giants, a study by Datamonitor claims.

UK - The Society of Pension Consultants has welcomed a new regulatory task force set up to tackle consumer confidence in pensions.

ITALY - The latest statistics about Italy's pensions market show that private funds are steadily accumulating assets but slow membership growth rates for both contractual and open schemes suggest that further reforms are necessary to stimulate the market....

EUROPE - In the next step in the 42-part Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP), the European Commission is considering enlisting the expertise of the investment community in a consultation process ahead of the 2005 deadline.

UK - Exclusive - EDF Energy, the UK subsidiary of the French energy giant, has gone against the grain and launched a new final salary pension scheme which could see the fund's assets tendered over the next few months.

NORDICS - State Street Global Advisors has named Laurent De Greef as director of marketing for the Nordic region.

UK - BP is plunging an extra £790m into its pension schemes before the end of the year.

UK - Threadneedle Investments is launching four new versions of its fixed income funds to give investors returns gross of tax.