United Kingdom

UK - The Pension Protection Fund's (PPF's) levy for 2007/2008 has been confirmed at £675m.

UK - Lloyds TSB has appointed Hewitt Associates to provide consulting advice on risk and governance for its pension schemes.

UK - Lehman Brothers International and Legal & General have been appointed as transition managers by the Strathclyde Pension Fund.

UK - Unilever is to close it's final salary pension scheme to new employees in the UK.

UK - The deadline for pensions schemes of insolvent companies to qualify for the government's Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) has been extended to 31 August 2007.

UK - Hewitt Associates has lost an actuarial and investment services mandate with Panasonic UK pension schemes to Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP).

UK - State Street Corporation has been awarded custody and investment servicing mandates by five UK-based pension funds, worth a total of £950m .

UK - Railpen is to invest £400m in hedge funds, as it looks to increase its total portfolio to £1.2bn by December 2007, up from £600m at the end of 2005.

UK - More than one fifth (22%) of companies feel increasing defined benefit pension costs are hurting share price, research by Aon Consulting has found.

NETHERLANDS/UK- Northern Trust was awarded two custody mandates in the last two days - by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council pension fund and Stichting Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds Zorgverzekeraars (SBZ), worth €3bn and €2.3bn respectively .