News

FRIENDS Provident has added self-invested personal pension and income withdrawal options to its "new generation" group personal pensions.

PensionsFirst launches; Long-only Cowen launches in UK; Standard Life asks Swiss Re to consider stake; Qatari group poised to walk away from bid for Sainsbury's

LEGISLATION allowing for Pension Protection Fund compensation to be shared on divorce is to be drawn up, the government has announced.

US - A Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe into Merrill Lynch's pension consulting business in Florida has led to the exit of its senior vice president.

GLOBAL - An ex-Morgan Stanley staffer has set up PensionsFirst, a company managing longevity exposure and market volatility risks for defined benefit (DB) pension schemes.

POOR HEALTH is the biggest reason for retirement in the UK, research from Skandia shows.

UK - Government proposals which aim to stop the decline of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes will fail to achieve their goal but could leave some workers thousands of pounds worse off, according to Standard Life.

AUSTRALIA - Risk adversity being displayed by institutional investors is expected to cloud a decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on interest rates this week.

IRELAND - Early signs of recovery in global equity markets are being displayed in the returns of Irish pension funds, according to the latest research from Rubicon Investment Consulting.

Crédit Agricole Asset Management has launched two global equity funds.