The West Midlands Pensions Fund has made a radical change to its asset allocation in a bid to boost the efficiency of its portfolio.

When times are tough, the least that we can do is recognise that service with a fair, affordable and decent pension scheme

The proposed European consumer rights directive must not affect schemes’ ability to auto-enrol employees, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has urged.

The new rules amount to double taxation, which breaks the tax-exempt principle of pension savings.

The Strathclyde Pension Fund has resumed its stock lending programme, with a view to making a million pounds during a lucrative eight-week period.

British Airways (BA) chairman Martin Broughton has blamed his firm’s spiralling pension scheme deficit on the processes employed by actuaries and accountants.

A damning attack on the practice of putting pension investments in equities has been launched by independent pensions adviser Ros Altmann.

The debate over public sector pay must consider pensions as a form of payment, according to resea-rch by Pension Corporation.

HSBC has ignited the unit-linked protected funds market with five funds that guarantee investors protection against market losses.

Scottish Life’s governed range of investments for defined contribution schemes has been endorsed by independent analysis.

Seven out of 10 fund managers predict the global economy will improve over the next year, according to a global investment survey.

The role of the fund manager is to maximise returns, not to carry out corporate governance, according to the Investment Management Association (IMA) chairman Robert Jenkins.

The buyout market will bounce back as it is the only way to remove liabilities fully from company balance sheets, Aon Consulting has claimed.

Are the bevies of safeguards introduced since the Maxwell snatch of pension funds being circumvented by short selling? That was the worry I had when I introduced a bill to forbid short-term selling. Events since then have compounded my fears.

In this head-to-head debate, two industry specialists put forward their arguments for the different types of annuity products currently available on the market

■ Representing the case for lifetime annuities – Mark Ashworth, a director at Law Debenture

■ Representing variable annuities – Peter Carter , head of product marketing at MetLife Europe

The actions of financial institutions in the UK imply that they are not bearish about Islamic financial services.

“Green technology will be one of the great growth sectors of the world economy over the next few years”. This statement, made by chancellor Alistair Darling while delivering the Budget is being echoed by political leaders the world over.

With chairmen standing down and votes against on the increase, shareholder activism is entering a new phase, says Tom Powdrill.

Have you ever had that burning desire to jump aboard a racing bike and career off into the earest bit of countryside? That’s just how Simon O’Connor, head of products and marketing at Lincoln Financial felt after seeing a bunch of muddy, happy cyclists gatecrash his local café one warm autumnal afternoon.

Swaps, political parties and trivial commutation enter the fray as Pensions Week polls its panel of expert trustees.

Following success in the Dutch market, fiduciary management has taken various forms in the UK pensions industry. Gill Wadsworth investigates the all-in-one service.

Paul Boerboom explains the lessons learnt from the first generation of schemes changing their investment and risk management organisations to fiduciary outsourcing

The Investment Management Association (IMA) announced four new board members at its AGM on May 19.

Risk consultancy firm Ortec Finance has appointed Andrew Slater as managing director, to be based in its new London office.

The Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM) has appointed Timothy Keaney as head of global client management and chairman of Europe.

Independent Trustee Services (ITS) has hired Martin Miles to its board of directors.