United Kingdom

UK - RAILPEN and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) have united to examine how businesses have adapted to existing climate change and the resulting implications to investors.

UK - The Northern Rock pension scheme has announced it has a deficit of £100m, but trustees said they would consider a buyout before letting the scheme go to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

UK - Legal and General reported strong performance figures for 2007 but admitted it is struggling on Continental Europe.

UK - Paternoster, the pension fund buyout company, announced its 2007 premium income to be £1.4bn (US$2.7bn) or an 1151% increase on 2006 figures.

UK - A researcher from Edinburgh University plans to use the UK's newest supercomputer to model and predict the likely outcomes of financial markets to help pension funds better plan for the future.

UK - The government may have missed yet another opportunity to solve the growing pensions crisis, according to a senior partner at actuaries and consultants Barnet Waddingham.

UK - Northern Trust has been re-appointed as custodian of the £10bn (US$19.7bn) Strathclyde pension fund, a position it has held for the past decade.

UK - The number of defined benefit (DB) schemes closing to new entrants or further accrual hit a plateau in 2007, according to the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF).

UK - The investment arm of HSBC has appointed three new members to its institutional team in a bid to improve its client offering.

UK - Standard Life aired its concerns over the Pensions Bill 2007 as the proposals were submitted to the House of Commons for the second reading stage.