United Kingdom

UK - Investment and actuarial consultant Bacon & Woodrow has pledged that it will not be following the industry trend of launching a multi-manager product.

UK - The pensions industry needs to agree on a set of standards to govern how stakeholder pension funds and products are presented if it is to stave off accusations of being misleading, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P).

UK - Twenty UK companies "most at risk" from higher pensions costs have been named by investment bank HSBC.

UK - The UK should look to the US and Australian models which offer stakeholder-type provision for guidance, Watson Wyatt claims.

UK - Alistair Lennard denied that he had "hopped from sector to sector" in the 18-months prior to the start of the new Unilever mandate at the beginning of 1997 during his third day in the docks.

UK - F&C Management is counting a £239m loss from the University of Cambridge Pension Fund after being dumped in favour of Henderson Global Investors (Henderson's) and Bank of Ireland Asset Management (Bank of Ireland).

UK - The £667m pension fund for Warwickshire County Council is expecting to finalise the outcome of its first asset liability study by February next year, in a move that could see a shift from balanced to specialist investment arrangements.

UK - The government has been forced to back down over pension rights for fixed-term workers following growing pressure from trade unions.

UK - Fund managers' costs will come under greater scrutiny when a new disclosure code takes effect.

UK - GMO Woolley (GMOW), the investment management arm of Boston-based Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo (GMO), has appointed Joseph Mariathasan to the newly created position of head of business development.