United Kingdom

UK - Cable & Wireless has agreed a demerger settlement which will see its pension provision split into two separate schemes.

IRELAND - Commodities can exceed equity returns over time while providing a good source of diversification in a scheme portfolio, Hermes head of commodities Colin O'Shea said.

UK - HM Treasury has trebled its estimate of the one-off costs that pension schemes, employers and individuals will incur as a result of the tax on higher earners' pension contributions it is introducing from 2011, Towers Watson said.

UK - Ignis Asset Management is encouraging industry leaders and politicians to debate hybrid schemes.

AUSTRIA - UK-based F&C Asset Management has submitted a potential takeover bid for Austrian asset manager C-QUADRAT Investment.

UK - The UK government is looking into scrapping the compulsory retirement age, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said.

UK - The £889m (US$1.3bn) Dyfed Pension Fund and the £1bn Wiltshire Pension Fund have appointed Prudential UK as additional voluntary contribution provider.

UK - Fidelity International chief investment officer Nicky Richards is to depart the group at the end of this month.

UK - Hermes BPK Partners chief executive officer Matteo Perruccio said Europe's draft plans to regulate its alternative investment funds could be a boon to investment consultants if it goes ahead as planned.

UK - Unfunded pension promises made to past and present UK public sector workers now amount to £993bn (US$1.5trn), Towers Watson calculations revealed.