Regulation

AUSTRALIA - Australia's savings could grow by another billion dollars a year with the use of better back-office administration, former corporate regulator Jeremy Cooper has said.

A consultation on proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme is expected to start in late September, following the scheme committee's decision to accept a range of reforms.

US - The US Senate has approved the largest overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression, aimed at averting a repeat of the recent credit crisis.

US - Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs will pay a record US$550m fine to settle the SEC's fraud probe into mortgage-backed securities.

The government is set to scrap the requirement to purchase an annuity and abolish alternatively secured pensions.

The initial charges associated with the National Employment Savings Trust Corporation could be increased to help cover the £280m deficit incurred by the national scheme at launch, industry experts say.

US - Pfizer directors should be held liable for the drugmaker's repeated violations of federal laws governing drug-marketing practices that resulted in the company having to pay a US$2.3bn settlement, a union pension fund said in a lawsuit.

The Pensions Regulator is set to strengthen its guidance on transfer incentives following "concerning" behaviour from some trustees.

The aggregate deficit of the 6653 schemes in the Pension Protection Fund's PPF 7800 index amounted to £21.8bn at the end June down from a surplus of £11.7bn at the end of May.

UK - Pensions minister Steve Webb has made a written statement to parliament clarifying the government's proposals to index private sector pension increases to CPI rather than RPI.