US - AK Steel's board of directors has authorised the company to make an early US$75m contribution to its pension trust fund during Q1 2008.

AUSTRALIA - The Future Fund has hired Pinnacle Property Group co-founder Barry Brakey as investment director of private markets.

IRELAND - Lucida is to reinsure an initial €110m (US$160.1m) of Bank of Ireland Life's existing corporate pension annuity business, in the first deal of its kind.

COMPANIES must seize opportunities offered by personal accounts, delegates to a Towers Perrin seminar heard.

UK - Best practice standards for hedge fund managers are likely to receive endorsement from pension consultants, according to Man Group deputy chairman Stanley Fink.

US - MSCI Barra, Standard & Poor's (S&P) and Dow Jones Indexes, in association with Wilshire, have all announced the launch of new indices for institutional investors.

SETTING up personal accounts has already cost the taxpayer £6.6m in consultancy fees, government figures reveal.

Fears spark global plunge; BP to take pensions holiday; Widows limits pensions exodus; Swiss Re eyes Friends

UK - Gains made by FTSE 100 pension funds over 2007 were wiped out yesterday in the greatest equities crash since 9/11 2001, according to some UK consultants.

SOUTH AMERICA - The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation has completed the acquisition ARX Capital Management, an independent asset management business headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.