ASIA - Asian pension funds should invest more in real estate if they want to bring in enough returns to meet their liabilities, a new report shows.

US - Marsh & McLennan, Mercer's parent company, has agreed to pay $4.75m to settle a suit brought by the Ohio attorney general alleging the firm conspired to eliminate competition in the commercial casualty insurance industry.

US - The New York State Common Retirement Fund (CRF) will invest $15m in early-stage companies through its new High Peaks Seed Venture Fund.

EUROPE - Nearly half of all European pension funds are imprecisely modelling their liability hedging portfolios, a new survey by EDHEC-Risk Institute finds.

Nearly half of all European pension funds are imprecisely modelling their liability hedging portfolios, a new survey by EDHEC-Risk Institute finds.

SOUTH KOREA/US - South Korea's National Pension Service has hired The Townsend Group to invest $300m in real estate in North and South America.

EUROPE - The European Commission will start a search for candidates to run three new regulators for the region's banking, securities and pension industries.

IRELAND - Irish defined benefit plan sponsors face the strictest pension reserve requirements in Europe, a study by Hewitt Associates finds.

US - New York City's $36bn pension fund for civil-service employees fired a money management firm headed by former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Richard Breeden, who was stung by losses on his investment in retail jeweler Zale Corp....

EUROPE - The hunt for scale and lower costs through mergers and acquisitions is set to be an industry-changing trend over the next five years, State Street says.