United Kingdom

UK - Two UK companies that decided to close their defined benefit schemes are rethinking their intended moves.

UK - Engineering group Babcock International has bucked industry trends by unveiling a massive net FRS17 surplus of £93m on its £400m pension scheme.

UK - The Financial Services Authority has restated its commitment to take legal action against firms which breach the Financial Services and Markets Act.

UK - People should be allowed to retire gradually rather than experiencing a "cliff-edge" drop at 65, work and pensions secretary Andrew Smith claims.

UK - Pension schemes are paying too much in transaction costs, British Coal pension scheme chief executive David Morgan claims.

UK - Companies are "on thin corporate governance ice" if they offer offer executive directors contracts of two years or more, pension funds warns.

UK - The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) is urging investors to stay calm following stock market dives in the wake of the WorldCom accounting scandal.

UK - Union proposals for compulsory pension contributions from both employers and employees have been slammed as a "tax on the poor" by Standard Life.

UK - New Faculty of Actuaries president Tom Ross has called on actuaries to become better communicators as well as pension experts.

UK - Software consultancy Open Seas is offering a data protection system for pension funds which, it says, will automatically prevent unauthorised access to electronic files.