Europe

UK/EU - Watson Wyatt has launched the 2003 editions of its employee benefits and employment terms documents.

UK - Public service scheme members are leaving their jobs because they are too ill to work but are unable to claim their pension, Unison claims.

UK - Larger pension funds are poised to move up to a 10th of their portfolios into private equity, the British Venture Capital Association claims.

UK - Some companies will be forced to wind up their pension scheme as an alternative to suspending dividends, former Labour minister Frank Field warns.

UK - Fund manager Close Brothers will be hosting a series of seminars for investment advisers looking at three specialist investment products.

UK - The pensions ombudsman is urging the government to begin industry simplicity by making wholesale changes to the way his office operates.

UK - Schemes should only change their third-party administrator as a last resort, independent technology and administration consultant Dunnett Shaw says.

UK - Mercer Human Resource Consulting is to provide actuarial, investment, legal and benefit consulting services to the Omnetica Pension Plan.

UK - Complaints from pension scheme members rocketed by more than 50% over the past year, OPAS figures reveal.

UK/EUROPE - Standard Life Investments has purchased two major properties in Lisbon and Paris as part of its European Property Growth Fund.