United Kingdom

UK - A deal is believed to have been struck between prime minister Tony Blair and chancellor Gordon Brown (pictured) to restore the earnings link to the basic state pension by 2012 and reduce the level of people eligible for mean tested benefits.

UK - RailPen Investments, manager of the £17bn Railways Pension Scheme, has appointed Keith Shepherd to the newly-created role of investment management head.

UK -  Nick Mustoe, chief investment officer at Hermes Pension Management has left the company to become CIO equities at Pictet Asset Management.

UK - John Bills, previous head of fund origination at Via Capital has left the company to join F&C Asset Management as head of institutional sales.

UK - The £860m Falkirk Council pension fund has appointed Newton Investment Management to a new £150m global unconstrained equity mandate, derived in part from a multi-asset brief previously managed by Henderson Global Investors.

UK - F&C Asset Management has appointed David Logan as CFO, representing the latest part of CEO Alain Grisay's management reshuffle.

UK - HBOS is reported to be the latest addition to the Goldman Sachs-led consortium circling the British Airports Authority (BAA), which includes two Canadian pension fund giants.

UK - Baillie Gifford could lose a £650m balanced mandate of bonds and equities at the £1.4bn West Sussex County Council pension fund after the fund's decision to re-tender.

UK - UK fund manager Hermes is in the process of considering a serious re-allocation of the £34bn BT Pension Scheme in order to reduce its deficit risk.

UK - River and Mercantile Asset Management LLP (R&M) has appointed Hugh Sergeant and Richard Staveley, both from SocGen Asset Management (SGAM), as new members to their asset management team.