United Kingdom

UK - The trend of cutting dedicated SRI research is 'short-sighted' and 'counterproductive', FairPensions says.

UK - Taxpayers will have to find an extra £335bn over the next 50 years to fund gold-plated public sector pensions, a report claims.

UK - The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has given its broad support to proposals which will help institutional investors on issues such as voting and the obligations of proxies.

UK - The £400m Harsco Investment Pension Fund has dropped one of its bond managers as part the implementation of the final stage of its liability driven investment (LDI) strategy.

UK - The deteriorating economic climate will create new conditions for pension funds in the year ahead, according to BlackRock.

UK - The trustees of the Press Association Pension Fund have a completed a £60m buy-in transaction with Legal & General.

UK - Defined benefit pension schemes reached an aggregate deficit of £194.5bn (US$277.5bn) in December 2008, figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal.

UK - The net cost of buyout for pension schemes which remained heavily exposed to equities became 13% more expensive during 2008, latest figures by Paternoster reveal.

UK - The West Sussex County Council pension fund has awarded a £567m (US$798m) investment mandate to UBS.

UK - Pensions buyout business in 2009 will match 2008 levels of around £8bn (US$11.3bn) in 2009, Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP) research reveals.