United Kingdom

UK - Baring Asset Management is to launch two hedge funds for schemes and other institutional investors.

UK - Computer giant IBM has pledged to contribute an extra £180m to its UK final salary scheme to safeguard its future.

UK - The UK Social Investment Forum (UKSIF) has launched a toolkit aimed at helping financial advisers offer ethical and socially responsible investment advice.

UK - B&CE Benefit Schemes is piloting automatic enrolment under a project with the department of work and pensions.

UK - Delays in clarifying A-Day rules could expose financial advisers to misselling claims, Winterthur Life warns. Winterthur blames the delays on last-minute additions to the Finance Act by the Treasury and the department for work and pensions.

UK - Members will be stripped of their additional voluntary con-tributions if their scheme is forced to claim from the Pension Protection Fund, First Actuarial warns.

UK - Falling equity returns have forced companies and their schemes to focus on risk when making investment decisions, Watson Wyatt claims.

UK - The defined contribution pension scheme of mobile phone company Orange has dropped Deutsche Asset Management and hired JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management as sole active manager for £20m of its assets.

UK - Aon Consulting has been appointed to provide administration, actuarial and benefits consulting advice to the pension fund trustees of CHC Scotia, the UK provider of helicopter services in the North Sea.

UK - Schemes have "lost trust in ministers and the department for work and pensions" amid fears that the Pension Protection Fund is being made retrospective.