Aon Consulting and Russell Investments have teamed up to launch a product to manage both the assets and liabilities of pension funds.

The £1bn Somerset County Council pension fund has allocated £30m to emerging markets.

Balanced pooled funds achieved a median return of -5.7% in February 2009, latest CAPS pooled pension fund performance results from BNY Mellon Asset Servicing reveal.

UK - The £1bn (US$1.46bn) Somerset County Council pension fund has allocated £30m to emerging markets.

US - CalPERS and CalSTRS are jointly bidding to be lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against Bank of America stemming from its merger with Merrill Lynch.

GERMANY - Deutsche Börse has released a new index family based on the government bond market, comprising six Eurogov indices.

AUSTRALIA - David St. John, chief investment officer at UniSuper, will step down at the end of the month.

Local government pension scheme deficit estimated to have hit £100bn; Pension schemes not up to speed on crisis; Stop spending and balance the books, CBI tells Chancellor

US - The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) programme to help pension fund members buy and refinance homes almost tripled in size last year.

Friends Provident has implemented an industry-wide open market option system in a bid to speed up the payment of transfers to annuity providers.