United Kingdom

UK - Sharmila Soosaipillai has taken up the role of operational risk manager at fund of hedge funds Optimal Investment Services, owned by Santander Asset Management.

UK - The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) reported deficits of £343m (€512m) and also accepted 98 pension schemes in its first full year of operation.

UK - Will Aitken has joined Watson Wyatt as a senior consultant in its defined contribution (DC) pension business, having spent the last 10 years at Aon.

UK - Barclays has offered up all of the held shares in BlueBay Asset Mangement while Lehman Brothers has acquired 4.99% of the shares offered in the managers' IPO.

UK - Despite recent strong investment performance, UK pension plans still face funding troubles as 80% of them plan to make significant alterations to their asset class mix over the next three years, Greenwich Associates has claimed.

UK - George Osborne, the Conservative shadow chancellor has launched a fresh attack on Gordon Brown's pensions policy.

UK - Goldman Sachs in the US has vigorously defended the use of pre-hedging in transition management, providing a strong indication that any attempt to ban the practice globally would be met with heavy opposition on its part.

UK/US - Aon has proposed cuts to both its UK and US defined benefit plans worth US$60m annually, with UK members facing the termination of future salary and service benefits.

UK - Mellon Transition Management Services (MTMS) group has completed a transition management mandate for the North Yorkshire Country Council Pension Fund's £680m global equity portfolio, which threw out its customised benchmark in the process.

UK - Companies will not be spared from continued large contributions to their pension schemes as trustees plan to increase funding targets by an average of 10%.