UK - Henderson Global Investors has promoted David Morley to director of institutional business.

It said that Morley, who has been at the firm for almost eight years, is in particular responsible for relationships with local authority pension schemes.

The firm has more than £4.7bn (€7bn) in Local Government Pension Scheme mandates – spread across 26 local authority clients.

Institutional head Arno Kitts said: “David has clearly demonstrated his ability in this field and he is exactly the right person to continue developing client relationships, our strategy and service offering in this area.”

“Funding levels and the cost of recovering pension fund deficits are the biggest issues currently facing local authority pension fund managers,” Morley said.

“Henderson’s strength lies in our ability to help our local authority clients respond to these challenges by offering our expertise across a wide range of asset classes, catering for differing risk and return appetite.”

Yesterday it emerged that the £880m North Yorkshire Pension Fund had dismissed Henderson Global Investors from a balanced mandate worth 22% of the fund.