Europe

UK - Ian Marcus is taking over as chairman of the Investment Property Forum having been vice-chairman to Steven Fogel for the past year.

EUROPE - Alia Baig has been appointed to head the European equity team at Legal & General.

UK - Three new members have been elected to the Pensions Management Institute council.

UK - Britannic Asset Management has rejected claims that "blindfolded monkeys" would give schemes a better measure of return than peer-group benchmarks or market-weighted indices.

FRANCE - France's most powerful public sector trade union, the Confederation Generale de Travail (CGT), has conceded defeat over the country's controversial pension reform blaming disunity among trade unions for its lack of influence.

UK - Imperial Tobacco Pension Fund has replaced its Edis pensions administration system with Heywood's AXISe administration and payroll system.

UK - Value in equities will return once central banks prove they have the ability to prevent deflation, Schroders claims.

UK - Abbey National's specialist pension provider James Hay has launched a consultancy division to offer actuarial and advisory services to corporate clients.

UK - The JPMorgan Fleming Defined Contribution Industry Survey - carried out with IPN's sister title, Professional Pensions, looks to gauge trends in both defined contribution and defined benefit pension provision among UK employers.

EUROPE - Guidelines for socially responsible investment funds have been set out by the European Sustainable and Responsible Investment Forum.