Global

The UK's £1.2bn Shipbuilding Industries Pension Scheme (SIPS) has dumped Newton Investment Management (NIM) following the defection of Toby Thompson from its team.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Alistair Darling has appointed David Laverick as UK pensions ombudsman from September 1 this year.

Frank Russell has been appointed by the £220m Smith & Nephew UK Pension Fund to run more than half the entire fund.

Two Dutch pension fund associations have launched a website offering information to pension funds migrating to the Euro.

The Hay Hall engineering group in Birmingham, UK has awarded Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI) a £6m multi-manager mandate to manage its overseas equities investments.

Global Asset Management (GAM) has appointed Jonathan Moseley as managing director for clients in Europe.

WestAM, the global institutional asset management firm, has appointed former Australian ambassador to the US, Don Russell, as head of business development in Sydney.

The European Commission (EC) has given the go-ahead for the take over of Dresdner Bank by Allianz, the insurance group, in Germany.

More than 40% of employees of UK businesses are likely to take out a stakeholder pension if offered access to one by their employer, according research by Barclays and Legal & General.

Aon Consulting is to launch its own manager-of-managers investment product, aimed at its existing pension fund clients.