United Kingdom

UK - Prime minister Gordon Brown has told parliament he expects the government will be able to guarantee 90% of the pensions lost as a result of company schemes collapsing.

UK - The gap between directors and their workers' pensions benefits may be closing, according to research by Xafinity Consulting.

UK - Defined benefit (DB) schemes will now be able to use bonds to immunise against inflation and market risk, according to PensionsFirst.

UK - The prime minister and chancellor are preventing the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) from rescuing the pensioners whose company schemes collapsed since 1997, according to the Pensions Action Group (PAG).

UK - According to a report by FairPensions, the UK has recognised the need to address environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, but many well known companies are still dragging their feet on climate change and human rights.

UK - Overlay Asset Management has launched a specialist fund to invest exclusively in emerging market currencies.

UK - Guernsey's public sector pension fund has suffered a paper loss of £2.25m (US$4.6m) because of an ill-timed investment in Northern Rock.

UK - The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) is urging its members to launch a joint legal challenge against the HMRC stance that VAT should be charged on investment managers' services to occupational pension schemes.

UK - The majority of contract-based defined contribution (DC) pension schemes in the FTSE 100 (68%) offer members a choice of 20 or more investment funds, according to Watson Wyatt.

UK - The pensions industry has expressed disappointment over aspects of the Pensions Bill released yesterday, claiming it fails to address deregulation and places higher cost and time burdens on pension schemes.