United Kingdom

UK - Plans for a standardised set of business guidelines for the transition management industry are on the verge of collapse if key members cannot come to an agreement today on vital components.

UK - The Pensions Regulator has today confirmed it will continue to assess the health of defined benefit schemes with the use of funding triggers to help it prioritise its workload.

UK - Ex-Prudential executives Isabel Hudson, Mark Duffy and Jay Shah have unveiled a new liability buy-out venture, Synesis Life, with backing from JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Warburg Pincus.

UK - The Royal County of Berkshire pension fund has tendered a £410m currency overlay mandate incorporating both passive hedging and active management.

UK - The Pensions Regulator has criticised trustees for their "low standards of knowledge and understanding", a problem it plans to address in the next three years.

UK - Hymans Robertson has been replaced by Mercer Human Resource Consulting as actuarial consultant to the £550m London Borough of Newham pension fund.

UK - The entire pensions architecture as laid out in the Turner report would collapse unless the state pension was again linked to earnings, the Trades Union Congress claimed today.

UK - The number of UK pension schemes using hedge funds is likely to double over the next two years according to a new survey conducted by MORI.

UK - The government would be responsible for 75% of the £35bn BT pension scheme's (BTPS) current liabilities, amounting to roughly £28.5bn, in the event of the company being wound up, the firm's scheme actuary has calculated.

UK - Multi-manager Investment Manager Selection (IMS) has made a raft of changes to its MM portfolios which are being integrated into the business as a result of the acquisition of MM Asset Management from Threadneedle last year.