Europe

UK - Dow Corning Pension Plan has awarded a £32m global equity mandate to SEI Investments.

UK - Blindfolded monkeys would give schemes a better measure of returns than peer group benchmarks and indices, Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow claims.

UK - Fund managers' profitability shows no sign of improvement and is unlikely to recover in the next three years, new research shows.

UK - Friends Provident is launching a new multi-manager fund product for new corporate clients.

UK - Pension funds have welcomed Tesco's promise to look at current directors' contracts.

UK - International investment consulting firm Stamford Associates has appointed Roger Cobley as a director.

UK - The Confederation of British Industry has set up a pensions advisory group.

UK - Royal Mail is clamping down on early retirement benefits for its executives as it grapples with its £4.6bn pensions deficit.

UK - Aegon Asset Management has parted company with its head of fixed income, Malcolm Jones.

UK - Huge numbers of workers will contract back into the state scheme because National Insurance rebate levels are unsustainable, Axa warns.