United Kingdom

UK - Derbyshire County Council Pension Fund is considering whether to back a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) -coordinated vote at BP's annual meeting over drilling in environmentally areas.

UK - Aside from encouraging scheme members to buy into personal pensions, the growing trend for companies to close their final-salary provision is hastening further the move of the fund management industry towards passive investment styles, all sides...

UK - The Railtrack Shareholders' Action Group and the private shareholders' action group have joined forces to pursue the legal action against transport secretary Stephen Byers and the DTLR.

UK - Schroders has taken yet another blow after being dumped from an equities portfolio at one of the country's largest local authority schemes.

UK - Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has announced its plans to stop soft commissioning for pension fund clients.

UK - Over half of the companies in the UK will see a reduction in their balance sheet assets as a result of FRS17, according to William M Mercer.

UK - Pension funds could benefit by a more diversified bond portfolio, according to Morley Fund Management.

UK - Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) is set to launch a multi-manager package for smaller UK defined benefit pension schemes. It will be the first time that MLIM has offered products of external managers to institutional clients.

UK - Debates surrounding the trashing of final salary schemes were fuelled this week when WM Company founder Dugald Eadie accused company directors of allowing greed and manipulation to drive their decisions.

UK - The UK's fund management companies could soon become nothing more than marketing machines in the wake of the Unilever versus Merrill Lynch case, according to ex-Phillips & Drew CIO Tony Dye.