Europe

UK - Gartmore Investment Management has launched Alpha-Gen Credit - its 10th standalone hedge fund aimed at schemes and other institutional investors.

UK - Roadside rescue and motoring services group RAC has drawn up a 12-year plan to wipe out its £129m pensions deficit.

EUROPE - As the financial reporting season gets into full swing, Aegon, the Dutch life insurer and pensions provider has reported first half earnings of e859m, an increase of 13% over this time last year.

UK - Isis Asset Management lost more than £360m in institutional mandates in the first six months of the year.

UK - BP's decision to take scheme administration back in-house is not the start of wholesale moves away from third-party providers, experts claim.

UK - Northern Trust has launched an investment-monitoring package that will enable schemes to determine the impact of market events on their portfolios.

UK - Insurance giant Prudential is facing union unrest after talks over the future of the firm's pension provision stalled.

EUROPE - Institutional investors including pension funds are becoming less worried about price and more concerned with factors such as after-sales service when they are trading equity derivatives.

UK/EUROPE - Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) is going all out to capture the traditional business of consultants in launching its own asset advice service which encroaches further up the pensions management supply chain than any fund manager has...

UK - Watson Wyatt has pumped £3.3m into its pension scheme in a bid to stem a soaring pensions deficit.