PAKISTAN - The Pakistani prime minister Shaukat Aziz has come out in support of Credit Suisse, which announced plans to launch operations in the country.

MEMBER-NOMINATED trustees must feel properly valued in order to continue their role, trustees say.

UK - Raiffeisen Capital Management (RCM) has announced it will offer seven funds to investors in the UK.

PENSIONSRISK has hired Michael Pomery, the former president of the Institute of Actuaries, as its senior strategic adviser.

BULK annuity specialist Paternoster is offering struggling firms a way out of their Pension Protection Fund obligations by guaranteeing their benefits to the same levels.

Improved funding levels will not encourage firms to reopen final salary schemes - even with lower benefits - a survey by Professional Pensions reveals.

GLOBAL - Index provider MSCI Barra's plan to update and upgrade the methodology behind its investable indices, adding 28,000 new indices in the process, was formally announced today.

US - Fidelity Investments is closing its traditional pension plan to ‘address the evolving and changing needs its employees will face in retirement'.

Actuaries call for ‘third way' of shared risk schemes; Sales surge helps Sainsbury's boost its negotiating position; Barclays ‘will not overpay' to buy ABN; Shell chief to stay an extra year beyond company retirement age

SOUTH KOREA - South Korea's US$202bn National Pension Fund is to commission foreign asset managers to increase its domestic and overseas equity allocation, as bonds fall out of favour.