United Kingdom

UK - Barclays Global Investors' assets under management topped the $1trn (£528.8bn) mark in 2003.

UK - More than a quarter of firms offer staff flexible benefits - up from just over one in five firms a year ago, a new survey shows.

UK - Pension funds should be wary of investing in pharmaceutical, oil and gas, and engineering firms following a further slide in the US dollar, fund managers warn.

UK - Employees killed in a terrorist attack are increasingly unlikely to be covered by any company insurance scheme, Watson Wyatt warns.

UK - Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) has hired Kristina Ilar as vice president from Gartmore.

UK - Employee benefits consultant Jardine Lloyd Thompson and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development have produced a guide for employers on flexible benefits.

UK - State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) has been appointed by Reckitt Benckiser UK Pension Fund to manage a £50 million UK enhanced indexing equity mandate.

UK - King & Shaxson Asset Management has launched a cash management service for pension funds which, it says, will undercut competitors.

UK - Firms must go online to stop workers underestimating the value of employee benefit programmes, Mercer Human Resource Consulting claims.

UK - The Chartered Insurance Institute has appointed Bob Bullivant as managing director of the Society of Financial Advisers - the CII's financial services arm.