United Kingdom

UK - Commerzbank is due to bring its ComStage ETF range to the UK in September.

UK/CANADA/ASIA - Standard Life has seen net corporate business inflows increase by 71% in the first half of the year.

UK - Rumours are escalating in the City that fund manager Gartmore could be ripe for a takeover approach, as its share price languishes more than £1 below its December 2009 flotation price.

GLOBAL - Plan sponsors are in the midst of an unprecedented amount of custodian turnover, says J.P.Morgan Worldwide Securities Services managing director and head of pensions Benjie Fraser.

UK - The aggregate funding position of the 6,653 schemes in the Pension Protection Fund's 7800 index improved to a surplus of £6.6bn at the end of July.

UK - Ten FTSE100 companies have total disclosed pension liabilities greater than their equity market value, Pension Capital Strategies research shows.

UK - Unilever has appointed one of Mercer's top investment consultants to help run its pension scheme.

UK - The part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland has cut its pension costs by £144m ($230m) compared with the first half of last year.

UK - A record £12.5bn ($20bn) risk transfer deals were done in the first half of the year and a quarter of major firms will de-risk by 2012, Hymans Robertson predicts.

UK - SL Investment Management, a traded endowment policy (TEP) and life settlement product provider, has acquired competitor PolicyPlus.