United Kingdom

UK - Royal Mail is clamping down on early retirement benefits for its executives as it grapples with its £4.6bn pensions deficit.

UK - Aegon Asset Management has parted company with its head of fixed income, Malcolm Jones.

UK - Huge numbers of workers will contract back into the state scheme because National Insurance rebate levels are unsustainable, Axa warns.

UK - Brewing giant Whitbread faced the wrath of pension funds over its two-year rolling contracts for directors at its annual general meeting.

UK - A major investigation into Scotland's largest pension fund has revealed around 130 cases of "suspicious payments".

UK - Scottish & Southern Energy could face shareholder protests at its annual general meeting after topping up the pension pot of retiring chief executive Jim Forbes.

UK - PricewaterhouseCoopers is urging trustees to boost their schemes' corporate governance policies in response to growing pressure from the government.

UK - The FSA will make annual top-up contributions to its DB scheme starting with £2.5m in 2003-04.

UK - Schemes are not increasing their bond allocations at the expense of their equity weightings, new figures from WM Company reveal.

UK - Car manufacturer Nissan will give its UK employees a choice of pension provision from September.