United Kingdom

UK - Electrical retailer Dixons has revealed an FRS17 deficit of £53.3m on its £393m UK final salary scheme.

UK - Engineering companies are bucking the trend of abandoning defined benefit pension schemes to recruit the best graduates on the market.

UK - Balanced and active management will "fade away" as investment styles used by pension funds, claim two of the UK's largest multi-managers.

UK - Legal & General achieved stakeholder sales of £86m in the first half of 2002, a rise of £46m on the same period in 2001.

UK - PSolve, one of the first investment consultancies in the UK to work for performance-related fees, has won 40 pension fund clients in its first year of operation.

UK - Low employer contributions to pension schemes are leaving the lower-paid without adequate retirement provision, Momentum Financial Services warns.

UK - Pension funds were only modest buyers of bonds in the first quarter of this year, Deutsche Bank claims.

UK/US/EUROPE - The London-based arm of US investment firm GMO Woolley is planning to launch an absolute return strategies fund for European investors following a resurgence of interest in actively managed funds.

UK - Pension fund liabilities under FRS17 have soared by over 7% over the last month as yields on long-term bonds have plummeted.

UK/EUROPE - Schroder Investment Management has hired Nicholas Gartside as European fixed income manager.