United Kingdom

UK - The pension scheme of CHC Scotia, provider of helicopter services in the North sea, has awarded SEI Europe a £70m multi-asset mandate.

UK - PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed by the Pensions Regulator Programme to help develop a clearance procedure in light of the ‘moral hazard' clauses contained in the new Pensions Act.

UK - Lane Clark & Peacock says it has launched two specialist services for trustees and corporate sponsors of pension schemes in response to demand for specialist actuarial advice in these areas.

UK - Government plans to base civil service pensions on a career average salary rather than final salary will benefit shorter term and non-upwardly mobile workers, says Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

UK - State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has hired graduates Xavier Gerard and Andrei Serjantov as quantitative research analysts for its Advanced Research Centre (ARC).

UK - The £2.5bn Lancashire County Council Pension Fund has terminated a £525m balanced mandate held by Deutsche Asset Management due to poor performance.

UK - The aggregate deficit of UK pension funds at non-investment FTSE350 companies has risen by £4bn since December 31 last year, taking the total deficit to £77bn, according to a new report by Mercer.

UK - Multi-manager Investment Solutions, part of the Alexander Forbes Group, has been appointed to manage the assets of the £9.5m closed defined benefit (DB) pension scheme of Intelek.

UK - Communication is crucial to help staff appreciate the value of a pension scheme, reports the UK's Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

UK - More than 60% of British manufacturers with occupational pension schemes support compulsory pension contributions greater than current National Insurance contribution levels, according to a survey by Aon Consulting.