Europe

EUROPE - A European Commission Green Paper - due for release next week - is set to reopen the issue of solvency standards in pension schemes.

GLOBAL - BP will not pay dividends for the remainder of the year as it has to put us$20bn in a compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill.

UK/GLOBAL - BP directors will face "testing questions" from schemes in the wake of the firm's decision to suspend dividends for the remainder of the year, the National Association of Pension Funds said.

UK - George Osborne has announced plans to abolish the Financial Services Authority and increase the powers of the Bank of England.

UK - The National Association of Pension Funds has urged the government not to damage the UK's savings culture by back peddling on pension reforms.

FRANCE - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government said it will raise the retirement age to 62 and increase taxes on capital, seeking to stem losses in the pension system and safeguard the nation's top credit rating.

DENMARK - Dutch pension manager ATP has been appointed administrator to KL, a federation of 98 Danish municipalities, by the ministry of finance.

UK - A group of institutional investors has written to all FTSE350 chairmen urging them to reveal more detail about executives' pensions.

GLOBAL/UK - Institutional fund of hedge funds Fauchier Partners has won investor backing for a novel lock-in on one of its flagship products.

UK - Almost every defined benefit plan in the UK has plans to reduce or axe current provisions in the future, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey revealed.