World briefs

LANCASTER, England - The Lancashire County Council Pension Fund issued an RFP for a global custodian, said Mark Bennett, principal accountant.

Each of the £2 billion ($3.3 billion) scheme's current custodians - Bank of New York, Citibank Global Securities Services, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Asset Management, Legal & General and J.P. Morgan Investor Services - can rebid, he said, although Deutsche Bank has sold its custody and securities services business.

Mercer Investment Consulting is assisting. Proposals are due June 11.

GLASGOW - North Glasgow NHS Trust, which finances the Princess Royal Maternity Hospital, hired Merrill Lynch Investment Managers to run the charity's £40 million ($65 million) in assets in a balanced portfolio, said Gordon T. Craig, trust finance director. The money was managed internally until May, he said.

"We've decided to outsource the investment management activities in light of a review of financing arrangements for hospitals in Scotland," he said.

The scheme did not use a consultant.

LONDON - More than 40% of U.K. companies closed their defined benefit pension schemes to new employees in 2002, according to a National Association of Pension Funds survey. Simon Miller, spokesman, said just 19% of companies offered defined benefit pensions to new employees as of Dec. 31, according to the survey of 250 pension schemes.

Also, one-third of firms planned to review their defined benefit plans over the next 12 months, the survey showed.

Separately, 49% of 152 companies surveyed by J.P. Morgan Fleming Asset Management have closed their defined benefit schemes to new employees, according to Jackie Meere, J.P. Morgan Fleming spokeswoman. Also, 84% of firms that offer only a defined benefit scheme had no plans to offer other pension benefit options.

MONTREAL - Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. hired Financial Risk Management and Meridian Capital Partners to run C$70 million (US$51.9 million) each in hedge funds of funds, said Marc Osborne, spokesman. The C$2.4 billion pension plan was assisted by consultants Brockhouse & Cooper, Towers Perrin, Mercer Investment Consulting, API and New England Pension Consultants, Mr. Osborne said.

LONDON - Institutional Shareholder Services and the National Association of Pension Funds formed Research, Recommendations and Electronic Voting, a joint venture to provide British pension investors with access to corporate governance analysis and electronic voting capability. The services, which start in January, will include: "corporate governance analysis and recommendations, based on NAPF policy, extended to all FTSE All-Share companies, not just the current top 350; global access to analyses of, and voting recommendations on, some 22,000 companies in around 80 countries (including the United States); and electronic voting capability on U.K. and global securities," according to a news release from the two groups.

NAPF-member schemes have about £600 billion ($983 billion) in assets.

TOKYO - Nomura Group is the first Asian financial institution to participate in the EquiLend global securities lending platform, according to officials at EquiLend. EquiLend is a web-based securities lending platform developed about nine months ago by 10 large U.S. financial services firms.