United Kingdom

UK - The £2bn (US$3.97bn) Teeside Pension Fund is to place its UK direct property mandate out to tender.

UK - Consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide has chosen Carl Hess to succeed Roger Urwin as global head of investment consulting.

UK - Pension funds' holdings in global equities plummeted for the eighth consecutive year in 2007, from 62.7% to 55.1%, according to BNY Mellon Asset Servicing.

UK - Changes to the valuation assumptions used for pension scheme valuations under section 143 and section 179 of the Pensions Act 2004 have been confirmed by the Pension Protection Fund.

UK - The North Yorkshire County Council pension fund has placed a £250m ($499m) global equities mandate out to tender, due partly to disappointment with Barclays Global Investors (BGI).

UK - Hedge fund replication has moved into the spotlight following the Universities Superannuation Scheme's £200m allocation to the strategy.

UK - The Falkirk and the City of London pension funds have joined the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF).

INCLUDING: UK - PensionsFirst seminars; UK - Watson Wyatt research; UK - Investment Solutions appoints CIO

UK - Providers of fiduciary management services, popular in the Netherlands, have claimed elements of the offering are already being used in the UK and some pension funds will have adopted the approach by the end of 2008.

UK - The UK government missed an opportunity to improve structural issues in the inflation linked bond market, when its Budget revealed its borrowing would soar next year to £43bn (US$87bn).