ITALY - BNL/BNP Paribas Employees' Pension Fund has hired State Street Global Advisors to run an €82m ($113m) custom fixed income mandate while the Cariplo Pension Fund renewed a European equity mandate worth $71m.

NETHERLANDS - Dropping interest rates knocked the coverage ratio for Pensioenfonds Zorg & Welzijn (PFZW) down to 91% and Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP's down to 90%.

US - The board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System renewed the contracts of the 16 external managers responsible for its $123.3bn global equity portfolio.

US - Assets at BlackRock hit $3.3trn in the third quarter, down 9% over the three-month period, after market declines battered equity strategies.

US - The asset management fees brought in by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) were up 17% in the year ended 30 September, despite overall assets under management dropping by 4% in the same period, parent company State Street Corp. said today.

EUROPE - Large European investors have redefined passive investing and moved away from the idea of indices representing a buy-and-hold strategy a new survey shows.

SWITZERLAND - Swiss firm Lombard Odier Investment Managers plans to launch a new fundamentally-weighted developed sovereign debt fund after a Swiss pension fund agreed to invest CHF1bn ($1.1bn) in the strategy.

US - The $40bn Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., the sovereign wealth fund known for being among the first institutional investors in the US to use a risk-based asset allocation approach, has hired Jay Willoughby as its new chief investment officer.

State Street has been forced to reimburse a client for a transition management trade after an internal investigation found the client had been double charged on fees.

IRELAND - The 30 largest publicly traded companies in Ireland reduced their pension deficits by €2bn ($2.7bn) in 2010 to €24bn after at least half made changes to promised pension benefits but average deficits continue to outpace market capitalisations,...