ITALY - Italian pension funds are in need of an organisational overhaul to keep up with the evolution of fund management practices, a study by Mefop, the Italian society for the development of the pension fund market, has concluded.

US - Several top US pension funds are shifting their investment strategies away from traditional equities to focus on better-performing alternatives in a global market that has been less than kind to institutional investors.

CANADA - The pensions industry has been urged to always remember fundamental investment principles such as transparency, as losses from Canadian non-bank asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) become clearer.

US - CalPERS is seeking support for a proposal to give La-Z-Boy shareowners the right to elect directors annually.

UK - Hermes has announced the appointment of Glyn Jones as chairman of Hermes following the retirement of Richard Bernays, 65, who stepped down after three and a half years of service.

INCLUDING: UK - Buck Consultants new appointment; GLOBAL - Commodities driven by momentum-chasing; UK - Aon warns on regulation on DB pension transfers

UK - The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has seen the launch of 19 new exchange traded funds (ETFs) from Barclays Global Investors' iShares and Deutsche Bank's db x-trackers.

The British Air Line Pilots Association has been threatened with industrial action if negotiations regarding the organisation's defined benefit pension scheme fail.

One hundred pension schemes have responded to a pilot programme aimed at improving mortality assumptions, Hymans Robertson says.

US - The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is seeking to form strategic partnerships with outside firms to assist the corporation in carrying out its new investment policy.