United Kingdom

UK - The proposed merger of the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries has failed to garner enough votes to go ahead.

UK - Directors of FTSE100 companies will have to pay more than £50,000 a year in additional tax from 2011 until they retire because of the tax-relief restrictions, a report by Lane Clark & Peacock revealed.

UK/US - Personal accounts should learn from the experiences of other countries, a conference on international pensions in Washington DC was told.

UK - HSBC Actuaries and Consultants was fined £875,000 (US$1.4m) by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for having lost personal information of pension scheme members.

UK - Pension funds and other institutional investors have been wary of rushing into making significant changes to their portfolio, a report by the Investment Management Association reveals.

UK - Friends Provident has categorically rejected an acquisition proposal by Resolution, a bid vehicle set up by entrepreneur Clive Cowdery to target UK insurers and asset managers.

UK - The asset value of the BBC pension scheme has plunged to £6.5bn (US$10.5bn) from £8.1bn last year, due to heavy losses on its equity holdings.

UK - Paternoster is not in negotiation with any potential acquirer despite market rumours indicating the opposite, Global Pensions has learned.

UK - Barclays is set to close its final salary scheme to future accruals as part of a review of its pension arrangements.

UK - A laptop containing the unencrypted personal data of 109,000 Pensions Trust members has been stolen from software provider NorthgateArinso.