UK - Mark Wood, the insurance industry heavyweight who established buyout company Paternoster, has joined the board of Lloyd's insurer Chaucer.
 
Following the announcement of Paternoster's winding down, Wood, 57, has set about building a raft of boardroom appointments, including becoming chairman of Jardine Lloyd Thomson Benefit Solutions, ad agency Beta, digital marketing company, Digitalis and the NSPCC.
 
He was also head of Prudential for the UK and Europe from 2001 to 2005.

Meanwhile, The London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) has put forward a series of "quick wins" to tackle the soaring cost of funding local authority pension schemes by UK taxpayers.
 
The proposals include indexing pensions in payment in line with the consumer price index - as has been proposed for civil servants and the private sector - raising the retirement age to 66 by 2016 and slowing the rate at which workers accrue the right to a pension.
 
The LPFA also proposed limiting the definition of  'final salary' to no more than £75,000-£100,000, with only limited accruals for salary in excess of this cap.
 
The proposals are in response to an enquiry into the funding of all public sector pensions by John Hutton, former work and pensions minister.
 
And lastly, the BBC has averted strike action by staff against changes to its pension scheme following a nine-to-one vote by union members in favour of industrial action.
 
Union leaders said strike action would be delayed until they heard further proposals from BBC director general Mark Thompson in two weeks' time.
 
The postponement of strike action also follows proposals by the BBC to securitise property and other assets to tackle the estimated £1.5-£2bn deficit in its main pension fund.
 

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