United Kingdom

UK - Former F&C international business director Paul Williams has been appointed business development director with Fidelity International.

UK - Management costs of institutional investments will potentially be driven lower if private sector asset managers provide the service for the National Pensions Savings Scheme (NPSS), the Investment Management Association (IMA) said.

UK - CB Richard Ellis Investors has acquired European real estate multi-manager Oxford Property Consultants, a move which will see the creation of an international multi-manager platform and provide the resulting business with £750m in initial mandates....

UK - Lloyds TSB will be injecting additional contributions into its pension fund to plug the £1.5bn deficit over the next 10 years.

UK - If the government meddles with the agreement reached on general practitioners' (GPs) pensions, they will question any further cooperation with key government policies, warned Hamish Meldrum (pictured) chairman of the British Medical Association GPs...

UK - Andy Staddon, previously of Hewitt Associates, has joined Mercer Human Resource Consulting as a principal within its retirement business in Manchester. 

UK - Tim Callaghan, who had been set to join Resolution Asset Management, has been persuaded to remain at Gartmore after being offered a promotion to partner.

UK - Newly appointed Pension Protection Fund (PPF) head Partha Dasgupta has highlighted risk management as one of the key areas he plans to drive forward during his tenure.

UK - Citigroup Asset Management has lost two of the individuals responsible for building its institutional sales capability, with both moving to Investec Asset Management.

UK - Increasing correlation of the commodities market with that of equities, and the possibility of prices dropping in the future, indicate it is not wise for institutional investors to look to commodities for diversification, Legal & General has claimed....