ITALY - Fondo Cometa has awarded two separate investment mandates for an overall value of €620m (US$836.7m) to Unipol Gruppo Finanziario (UGF) and Cattolica Assicurazioni (CA).

EUROPE - The European asset management industry has called for the creation of a standardised pension product across Europe in order to boost personal savings.

US - The San Diego County Employees Retirement Association (SDCERA) has said it will appeal against a New York court decision preventing it from recouping its investment in a collapsed hedge fund.

GLOBAL - Pension funds are missing out on the benefits of using exchange traded funds within their securities lending programmes, industry experts said.

NETHERLANDS/BELGIUM - A group of Dutch and Belgian investors is planning to sue ABN Amro and KBC who acted as counterparties in trades with Lehman Brothers and Ernst & Young who audited the bank's accounts.

EUROPE/FRANCE - The European Commission has told France to change tax rules that penalise foreign pension and investment funds.

AUSTRALIA - Cbus Super and CONNECT Super have announced intentions to merge, creating an A$15bn (US$13.8bn) fund covering 600,000 members in the building and constructions industry.

UK/GLOBAL - The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) decided to sell its stake in Océ to Canon after the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeals rejected the pension fund's request to investigate Canon's tender offer to buy Océ.

EUROPE - The European Parliament economic and monetary affairs committee (EP) reached a compromise agreement on the scope of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) directive that could allow non EU-domiciled funds to be marketed in Europe.

The Universities Superannuation Scheme has decided to sell its stake in Océ to Canon after the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeals rejected the pension fund's request to investigate Canon's tender offer to buy Océ.