Europe

UK - First-half profits at Barclays Global Investors soared to £91m - a 52% rise on the same period last year.

UK - No gain, no fee fund manager Bedlam Asset Management has won its first scheme mandates.

UK - Pension funds have praised Unilever for approaching institutional investors to ask why they failed to vote at its annual general meeting.

UK - Consumer spending trends will continue downwards despite an Iraq war rebound and a recent surge in web trading, Isis Asset Management predicts.

UK - Nearly a third of people do not regard a pension as the most secure way of providing for their retirement, a new study reveals.

EUROPE - Russia is a good investment bet regardless of the political rumblings causing instability in its lucrative extractives sector, Credit Suisse Asset Management claims.

UK - Schemes can improve returns by buying stocks of companies which have large pension fund deficits, fund managers claim.

UK - Local authority pension schemes will be forced to set out their funding policies if new government proposals go ahead.

UK - Firms cannot use their indemnity cover to recover payouts to clients mis-sold pensions, the House of Lords has ruled.

UK - Northern Trust has appointed Paul Chapman as senior vice-president and head of global fund services relationship management.