PENSION fund money will be the most significant factor affecting UK bond yields during the next five to 10 years, trustees and fund managers say.

AUSTRALIA - INVESCO has created the role of head of institutional client relationships and appointed Juliana Howard to position.

SCHEME demand for information to help fight shareholder class actions abroad is on the rise, custodians say.

If ministers hoped the European Court of Justice would end their misery over compensation for scheme wind-up victims, they have been sorely disappointed.

US - The Indiana Public Employees' Retirement Fund (PERF) has made four private equity commitments totalling US$165m, which follows a $205m private equity investment in December 2006.

OVER 40pc of housing associations in the multi-employer Social Housing Pension Scheme will slash benefits for new employees following a scheme review, The Pensions Trust reveals.

SWITZERLAND - Winterthur Insurance's Christoph Manser has joined AXA Investment Managers as head of hedge fund activities.

ITALY - Italian asset managers are being forced to move towards international standards as numerous foreign players enter the market, European regulation takes hold and investors hunt performance.

THE conservative pensions spokesman Nigel Waterson wants the chancellor Gordon Brown to promise that the state pensions will be linked with employment earnings before the next election takes place.

Scheme assets have grown to $2338bn (£1186bn) - equivalent to 99pc of the UK's gross domestic product, new research reveals.