This is not the first time I have written about Fred Goodwin’s pension, and I wish I could say that it would be the last. However, as the demonstrations in the City last week have shown, the whole nation is still, as the Americans would say, seeking closure on the issue.

David Cameron and senior Conservatives have signed an early day motion to revoke a slew of pensions regulations due to come into force this week.

Supermarket chain Morrisons Group has launched a group self-invested personal pension (Sipp) scheme as an additional savings vehicle for staff.

A private sector employer has refused to employ 225 ex-public sector employees after being posed with their £20m pension liability.

The £1.3bn Trafalgar House Pensions Trust is considering taking on struggling small and medium-sized schemes that lack enough governance to achieve strong investment returns.

Investment consultants are advising trustees of defined contribution schemes to abandon money market funds that lack robust due diligence.

The weekly full basic state pension will rise by 5% from £90.70 to £95.25 from today.

Equities constituted less than half of the average pension scheme portfolio for the first time last year.

A polarisation in scheme results over 2008 has shown the dangers of investment inertia, claims Hewitt Associates.

The Bank of England (BoE) has revealed it liquidated its entire equities portfolio from its pension scheme before the recession hit.

The aggregate deficit of the UK’s defined benefit schemes stood at £36bn at the end of March, according to Aon Consulting.

The Pensions Advisory Service has joined the clamour for employees to be given emergency access to their pension pots.

Any improvements in governance for hedge funds should be prompted by investors and not regulators, according to Axa Investment Managers (Axa IM).

An increasing number of schemes are looking to trim costs by implementing salary sacrifice arrangements and opting for bundled service provision, according to Fidelity.

Pension schemes have joined forces with institutional investors to urge the world’s largest economies to provide more green investment opportunities.

Hermes has exited from direct private equity investment to focus on private equity fund-of-funds.

At last month’s National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) investment conference, the government and the Finanical Services Authority, in two keynote speeches from Paul Myners and Hector Sants respectively, effectively blamed trustees for the banking failures and exhorted them to do more on governance. The audience were not impressed, seeing this for the buck-passing nonsense that it is. It is also symptomatic of a wider problem; why are trustees always in the firing line?

Newer, dynamic hedging strategies that straddle active and passive strategies provide better shelter for pension plans in these volatile markets.

The responsibilities and potential culpability of pension scheme trustees have increased significantly in recent years.

As Marks & Spencer faces the music again regarding combined roles, RBS may be the first bank to lose a remuneration vote, says Tom Powdrill

Regulation, regulation, regulation

A couple of numbers have caught my eye in the past few weeks – 350 and 60, since you ask. 350 is an estimate of the total DB pensions deficit (in £billions); 60 is a stab at the percentage of the increased regulatory cost of pensions represented by mandatory inflation-proofing. They are both guesswork, but they are also symptomatic of the burdens on sponsors that need to be addressed if DB provision is to have any chance of a future.

Almost a decade ago, retail fund distribution was blown apart by the introduction of the first fund supermarket. This revolutionary idea, offering investors the ability to buy and hold the funds of many providers in one account, was quickly adopted by consumers and is now well established as a mainstream route to buying funds.

Currency is being highlighted as a valuable method of diversifying a modern portfolio, and there is a plethora of ways to implement currency investments,says Torquil Wheatley

Psolve Asset Solutions has appointed Sathish Ramdayal (pic) as an investment adviser to help develop asset allocation solutions for the firm’s existing client base.

Hewitt Associates has reappointed Gavin Tillman as a member of its UK investment consulting team.

Mercer has appointed Mike Williams as head of change management for its outsourcing business.

Mercer has appointed Jeff Crispin as a principal in Sentinel Group, its specialist investment operations, implementation and governance arm.

A landmark ruling from the Court of Appeal has guaranteed that disabled firefighters will be able to collect an ill health pension.