United Kingdom

UK - Departmental conflicts between the DWP, the Treasury and Number 10 will produce only "modest" pension reforms, believes Conservative work and pensions spokesman David Willetts.

UK - The deficit on the £1.5bn GKN final salary pension scheme has risen to £750m, according to analyst reports.

UK - Radical tax reforms and increased incentives for pension savings will be an integral part of the forthcoming green paper, Alan Pickering predicts.

UK - Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is to sponsor and co-manage a fine art fund which aims to invest £200m in paintings and sculptures.

SCOTLAND - Watson Wyatt has hired Julie Robertson as a pension administration team leader at its Edinburgh office.

UK - Rothschild has sold its flagging UK retail, institutional and offshore (Guernsey) asset management businesses to Insight Investment Management, the fund management arm of HBOS.

UK - The National Consumer Council is calling on the government to decide whether employers, the government or individuals should shoulder retirement risk.

UK - Abbey Life Trustee Services has been ordered to pay eight years of backdated tax to members of the Irranely pension scheme.

UK - Only one-third of UK workers trust their employer to deliver its pensions promise, a Mori poll reveals.

UK - Employees in defined contribution schemes are having to pay more towards their pension than their final salary counterparts.