United Kingdom

UK - Less than a third of defined contribution (DC) scheme members understand how cash, equity and bond funds work, a Mercer Investment Consulting survey has found.

UK - Pension fund trustees may have to set aside "vast additional reserves" to cover risks posed by the possible incorporation of some aspects of Solvency II in the Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) directive, Andrew Cox, partner...

UK - Telecoms giant BT has committed to funding £2.8bn over the next 10 years to its defined benefit pension scheme (BTPS), after seeing its deficit surge to £3.4bn under the new, "more conservative" actuarial methodology.

UK - The £465m London Borough of Waltham Forest Pension Fund has put its entire fund up for tender, after receiving advice to switch from multi-asset management to specialist management.

UK - Paternoster has secured its 10th buy-out deal after taking on the Chartered Accountants' Employees Superannuation Scheme in a deal worth "between £10m-£50m".

UK - The Pensions Regulator has issued a discussion paper and draft guidance to help pension scheme trustees identify deals that would lead to sponsoring employers abandoning their pension plans.

UK - The government has come under fire as various quarters of the pension industry have criticised its plan for Personal Accounts as "a bad day for voluntary pensions provision" and merely "creating more questions than answers".

UK - Investment managers are facing difficulties in calculating the true cost of the integration of MiFID programmes into their existing projects, Investit Intelligence has found.

UK - KPMG International has set up an international standards group in London in a bid to achieve global consistency in the application of IFRS and International Standards on Auditing (ISAs).

UK - John Lewis Partnership Pensions Trust has appointed JPMorgan Asset Management to manage a £50m Japanese equities mandate.