United Kingdom

UK - Trustees and pension scheme sponsors should be wary of 'elephant traps' when seeking to de-risk their schemes, Mercer warns.

UK - Credit Suisse has been fined £5.6m (US$10.5m) by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

UK - Members of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes should expect lengthy delays when seeking to take a cash equivalent transfer value, Punter Southall warns.

UK - The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has intensified its focus on environmental, governance and social (ESG) issues, hiring F&C Investments as an adviser and committing to make public its UK voting records.

GLOBAL - Towers Perrin has increased its focus on cross-border pension plans for multinational companies with the appointment of senior consultant Dave Roberts.

UK - The circa £3.6bn (US$6.9bn) London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) has awarded incumbent manager European Credit Management (ECM) £25m.

UK - Over 13 million people in the UK have never reviewed their pension plans and a further 2.2 million have not done so in the last five years, a study from Baring Asset Management has found.

UK - Companies have been warned to expect a demand for more cash from nervous pension trustees as turmoil in the markets worsens.

UK - The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has released results of its PPF 7800 index, showing the aggregate funding position of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes worsened over July, slumping to a deficit of £24.1bn (US$46.2bn).

The UK government has been accused of pulling the wool over taxpayers' eyes following claims "fictitious surpluses" were used to boost government funds from two of the UK's largest pension funds.