United Kingdom

UK - Employees will need to be provided with basic pension scheme information within seven days of starting work from 2012, the government says.

UK - Pension trustees must show they are taking governance more seriously, financial services secretary Lord Myners says.

UK - FSA chief executive Hector Sants has said pension funds must shoulder some of the blame for the financial crisis and will play a crucial role in any recovery.

UK-The aggregate funding position of the 7800 defined benefit funds monitored by the Pension Protection Fund worsened to a record £218.7bn (US$302.1bn) deficit last month.

UK- Barclays Global Investors has hired David Gagnon as a director of transition strategy, where he will head the team which handles client portfolio restructurings.

UK - The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group pension scheme may use more than £800m of taxpayer cash to shore up the funding position of its pension fund.

UK - The £1.4bn Avon Pension Fund has hired Partners Group and Schroders to manage a property mandate worth approximately £180m.

UK - Public sector pensioners who have been underpaid their benefits due to administrative errors dating back to 1978 will receive full arrears, the government has confirmed.

UK - The £3.2bn (US$4.4bn) Tyne & Wear Pension Fund has terminated a circa £300m active UK equity brief held by Fidelity Investments, head of pensions Stephen Moore confirmed to MandateWire.

UK - Pension accounting standard FRS17 should be immediately suspended after the implementation of quantitative easing by the Bank of England, Baring Asset Management says.