United Kingdom

UK - The trial of Bjorn Stiedl, a company director accused of defrauding a pension fund of more than £2.1m, has been put back to April 2004.

UK - Forcing employers to make contributions to staff pensions could make some workers worse off, a consultant claims.

UK - The KPMG Staff Pension Fund is moving half of its assets into equities following a review instigated by its independent trustee, Aon Trust Corporation.

UK - Third-party administrators have failed to invest adequately in the bundled defined contribution market and are unable to meet trust-based providers' requirements, experts claim.

UK - Failure of trust-based defined contribution administrators to collect, invest and process payments accurately and on time is stifling industry standards, Watson Wyatt claims.

UK - Insight has recruited two sector fund managers to its equity research team.

UK - Pensions ombudsman David Laverick has called for "faceless trustees" to be stripped of powers to exercise discretionary death benefits.

UK - Investment managers are urging regulators to rethink their plans to abolish "soft commissions" and unbundle broker costs.

UK - Scottish Widows Investment Partnership has completed the conversion of the Hill Samuel unit trusts into two open-ended investment companies.

UK - Scheme calls for a radical overhaul of the basic state pension have been backed by the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool.