United Kingdom

WALES - Tougher laws to protect occupational pension scheme members have been put forward by Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru.

UK - Schemes are calling on OPRA to open its books and disclose all bogus pensions liberators.

UK - Merrill Lynch has held a top level summit with consultants to convince them that its troubled fund management arm has a viable future.

UK - Plunging stock markets have wiped nearly £5bn off the value of the Universities Superannuation Scheme's assets in the past seven months.

UK - Insurers are being forced to limit the size of bulk annuity buyouts because the corporate bond market is saturated by the volume of scheme wind-ups.

UK - Church of England dioceses have voted overwhelmingly to retain the church's £135m defined benefit scheme.

UK - Government plans for the partial privatisation of London Underground could be threatened by scheme deficits at support services firms Amey and WS Atkins.

UK - Trustees have been given the green light to withhold payouts to pensioners to recover any overpayments.

UK - Morley Fund Management has appointed Sarah Woods, Neil McLeod and Joel Lyndsay to its property team.

UK - Frank Russell has hired Jeffrey Geller to fill a newly-created senior level role to focus on alternative investments.