Europe

UK - James Hay Consultancy has launched a new property guide on purchasing commercial property through small self-administered schemes.

UK - The number of final salary schemes open to new members has dropped by almost 40% in the past year, a survey by the Confederation of British Industry reveals.

UK - Winterthur Life is to hold a series of seminars outlining the benefits of multi-manager products to IFAs.

UK - Gartmore Investment Management's flexible benefits package, Gartmore Plus, was introduced last year in a bid to tailor employee benefits more closely to what staff wanted.

UK - Schroder Investment Management's underlying asset management profits fell 30%.

UK - Mercer Human Resource Consulting is organising a human resource intelligence conference in Amsterdam on October 8 and 9.

UK - Key business leaders are urging fund managers to "rebuild trust" with investors or risk further government intervention.

UK - The Ministry of Defence has come under attack after awarding an army major at the centre of a sex scandal a £16,000-a-year pension.

FRANCE - The CGT (Confederation Generale de Travail), France's most militant trade union, has blamed France's association of directors, the Medef, of time-wasting during the first round of negotiations over pension reform.

SCOTLAND - Employment agency Scottish Enterprise has a £38m black hole in its final salary pensions scheme.