United Kingdom

UK - Mercer Human Resource Consulting has expanded its London-based international consulting team with four senior appointments.

UK - Two employers have been fined a total of £5500 for failing to make payments into personal pension plans.

UK - PIFC Consulting has appointed Paul Crocker as a director of its corporate development division.

UK - Engineering company Smiths is to raise its pension contributions to plug a spiralling £480m deficit.

UK - The £646m Shropshire County Council Pension Fund has appointed Goldman Sachs Asset Management to run a £49m US enhanced index brief.

UK - Employers are turning to flexible benefit plans to manage their spiralling pension costs and help retain final salary schemes, Mercer Human Resource Consulting claims.

UK - Gartmore Investment Management has launched Alpha-Gen Credit - its 10th standalone hedge fund aimed at schemes and other institutional investors.

UK - Roadside rescue and motoring services group RAC has drawn up a 12-year plan to wipe out its £129m pensions deficit.

UK - Isis Asset Management lost more than £360m in institutional mandates in the first six months of the year.

UK - BP's decision to take scheme administration back in-house is not the start of wholesale moves away from third-party providers, experts claim.