FRANCE - A bid by French president Nicolas Sarkozy to raise the official retirement age from 60 to 62 by 2018 has been approved by the lower house of parliament.

ROMANIA - Romania's parliament has approved changes to the national pension system in order to qualify for a €900m ($1.2bn) loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Pension funds will become bigger investors in leveraged loans because the asset class provides more stable returns than equity and high-yield bonds, according to Harbourmaster Capital Management.

City Financial has launched an Asia fund of hedge funds aimed at pension funds and other institutional investors.

GLOBAL - Investors in struggling money market funds are less likely to receive financial support from fund sponsors post-crisis, research from Moody's warns.

GLOBAL - Pension funds will become bigger investors in leveraged loans because the asset class provides more stable returns than equity and high-yield bonds, according to Harbourmaster Capital Management.

AUSTRALIA - Government superannuation plan the Future Fund has invested €450m ($579m) in UK leveraged finance provider Haymarket Financial (HayFin) ahead of the launch of the firm's new asset management business.

ASIA/UK - City Financial has launched an Asia fund of hedge funds aimed at pension funds and other institutional investors.

NETHERLANDS - Dutch pension funds and other institutional investors lead the field in non-listed real estate fund investing in Europe, research shows.

JAPAN - Japan's public pension fund, the world's largest, will increase asset sales by more than five times to about ¥4trn ($48bn) this fiscal year as payouts rise with the nation's population ageing.