United Kingdom

UK - Schemes will slash their equity weightings in order to increase their bond allocations and move to liability-driven mandates, fund managers claim.

UK - Public sector scheme members and MPs will get "favourable treatment" under the Finance Bill, lawyers claim.

UK - The £2.6bn J Sainsbury Pension & Death Benefits Scheme has appointed the Boston-based HarbourVest and Adam Street Partners of Chicago to run private equity mandates.

UK - The £2.8bn Boots pension fund has decided to switch 15% of its assets from bonds, abandoning its earlier decision of holding all its assets in bonds.

UK - The National Association of Pension Funds is under fire for launching a trustee qualification run in competition with the Pensions Management Institute.

UK - Retired IBM pension scheme members are considering "militant action" because the pensions ombudsman has taken almost four years to deal with their complaints.

UK - MORE than 6000 occupational pension schemes have closed in the last 12 months, latest figures from OPRA reveal.

UK - The National Association of Pension Funds is leading an industry drive for changes to the Pensions Bill in the House of Lords.

UK - Shareholders have been urged to challenge the Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group's board over remuneration payments at tomorrow's annual general meeting.

UK - The Trades Union Congress has welcomed moves by fund managers to open their voting records to scrutiny from pension scheme trustees.