United Kingdom

UK - Royal & SunAlliance has set aside £1.2bn to cover guaranteed annuity option liabilities, but a leading analyst warns there is more pain to come.

UK - Owner-managed businesses are a key area for new SIPPs and other benefit packages, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Financial Solutions claims.

UK - The asset management industry will undergo massive changes in the next five years, former Bank of England deputy governor Rupert Pennant-Rea predicts.

UK - Watson Wyatt is urging pension fund trustees to rethink their investment strategies in light of a nose dive by the FTSE100.

UK - Union leaders want compensation laws changed to give pension payments a higher priority.

UK - Tax free pensions are the key to closing the savings gap, research commissioned by RJ Temple shows.

SCOTLAND - Scottish textile company Richards has gone into receivership after failing to meet mounting minimum funding requirement repayments.

UK/GLOBAL - Hermes Pension Management is seeking to improve mutual understanding of corporate governance between Japan and the UK.

UK - Leading pensions lawyer Robin Ellison has left Eversheds - where he was national head of pensions - for a post at an undisclosed pensions law firm.

UK - Twenty percent of defined benefit (DB) schemes now exclude new members with more closures imminent, according to a new survey from research firms Pension Fund Partnership and MRM Projects.