MALAYSIA - The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) posted returns of RM3.6bn (US$980m) over the second quarter of 2006.

Ministers have spent an enormous amount of time and effort on their pension reform proposals.

PRUDENTIAL has outsourced a range of life and pensions sales and administration services to Capita Group in a three-year deal worth around £40m.

HENDERSON Global Investors is set to launch a fund of hedge funds in a bid to provide investors with absolute positive returns and acceptable volatility.

Financial services giant Axa is to offer personal finance education to everyone in its occupational defined contribution pension schemes.

SCOTTISH Equitable's individual annuities sales in-creased 27pc in the second quarter of this year.

GE LIFE has teamed up with Savills Property Management to offer commercial property as part of a self-invested personal pension.

FUND management firms should think twice about offering liability driven investment products, a report by Investit Intelligence warns.

A GROWING number of local authority schemes are seeking higher returns by investing in foreign exchange.

JAPAN - Aberdeen Asset Management will open an office in Tokyo in September to take advantage of what it sees as a bouyant market with potential both on the investment and institutional client side.