Treasury plans for perpetual gilts and ultra-long gilts with more than 50 years' maturity will fail to attract pension scheme demand, industry figures say.

Bookies have given a 50/50 chance that pension scheme concerns such as infrastructure and quantitative easing will feature in this afternoon's budget, according to latest betting odds.

Future European defined benefit regulations could segment schemes into different sectors to reflect the business risks of their sponsoring employers.

Dividend pay outs from UK companies will increase more than 10% this year, led by top dividend payments from telecom giant Vodafone, Capita predicts.

Tomorrow's defined contribution members need better reports to move from a focus on their accumulated pension wealth to emphasise their post-retirement income, delegates heard.

Hedge funds offering greater transparency via bespoke structures mean institutional clients can more readily model risk and reward to a sector they have previously shunned, Lyxor say.

Liquidity constraints and policy risks in overseas farmland investments are hampering more allocations to the asset class, delegates heard.

Labour's Rachel Reeves has attacked the government for forcing the Bank of England's to pursue its deficit-wrecking QE policy to "compensate" for its poor fiscal support.

The Pension Infrastructure Platform is set to bypass construction risk and offer both debt and equity investment portions for UK investors, plan organisers say.

Alex Salmond has urged UK pension funds to invest in Scottish infrastructure projects and back greater debt issuance powers for Scottish utility firms.