EUROPE – Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, head of Merrill Lynch’s European pensions and insurance group, is to set up his own firm.

“Dawid is leaving Merrill Lynch to set up on his own,” a spokesman said. Although no replacement had been named yet, the spokesman did mention that Gareth Derbyshire joined Merrill recently from Morgan Stanley.

Earlier this week Merrill Lynch Investment Managers said it is rolling out a new defined contribution pension arrangement which focuses on a targeted investment return.

It's called target driven investing (TDI), a conscious reference to Liability Driven Investing (LDI). MLIM said it's an improvement on DC lifestyle default funds. It declined to name the clients for the service.

There’s recently been some activity at the pensions groups at investment banks.

In February for example, Lehman Brothers hired Alan Rubenstein, head of Morgan Stanley’s European pensions group, to launch a new pensions group.

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