United Kingdom

UK - The London Borough of Lewisham has appointed Northern Trust to provide custody and performance measurement services for assets worth £505m.

UK - Corporate governance champion Paul Myners has challenged trustees to "find the courage" to redefine their role in pension provision.

UK - Henderson Global Investors has launched funds which offer schemes a range of investment options previously only possible through hedge funding.

UK - Pensioners cannot afford another rise in council tax because of an inadequate state pension, the National Pensioners' Convention claims.

UK - Mellon Global Investments have appointed Ian Harvey as head of UK pooled funds.

UK - Mercer Investment Consulting's UK equity manager recommendations outperformed the FTSE All-Share by 2.6% for the year ending December 2003.

UK - Former Gartmore Investment management chairman Paul Myners has been appointed as interim chairman of Marks & Spencer.

UK - Invesco Perpetual UK's Equity Fund was the most popular fund link in Scottish Life's pension range in the first three months of the year for the second time running.

UK - Hermes Pensions Management is suing financial services giant Citigroup along with auditors Grant Thornton and Deloitte for their part in the collapse of Parmalat.

UK - Consulting firm Hewitt has warned of "workforce planning time bomb" as a result of a majority of defined contribution scheme members failing to grasp the funding levels required to build sufficient savings for retirement.