UK - The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has confirmed Bill Galvin as its new chief executive only a few weeks after Michael O'Higgins took over as chairman from David Norgrove.

Galvin, who has been acting chief executive since the departure of Tony Hobman in May last year, said he was pleased to be given the opportunity to continue to lead the regulator.

"From 2012, auto-enrolment is predicted to bring many millions more into workplace pensions," he said. "This will make the next few years an exciting and challenging period."

Meanwhile, Mercer has been appointed to provide Pizza Hut with de-risking services for its £50m UK pension scheme.

The Pizza Hut UK Pension Plan, which is closed to new entrants, was struggling with underfunding and therefore turned to the consultancy, which employed a liability-driven investment strategy to help increase the scheme's funding ratio.

Gerard Carolan, chair of trustees at Pizza Hut, said: "The transition was efficiently managed, and we have already enjoyed funding-level improvements. The communication flow of results from Mercer has been very helpful in reassuring us our objectives have been met."

Finally, Deloitte has announced it will expand its pensions advisory services, with plans to treble its size over the next four years.

The new practice will focus on pension scheme funding, benefits strategy for employees and day-to-day operations, with around 200 employees.

Tony Clare, who heads up the practice, said: "The challenges our clients face are diverse and range from dynamically reducing pension scheme deficits to ensuring companies' pensions systems are capable of dealing with legislative changes announced as part of the government's reform of UK taxation."

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