Investment

AUSTRALIA - Government superannuation plan the Future Fund has invested €450m ($579m) in UK leveraged finance provider Haymarket Financial (HayFin) ahead of the launch of the firm's new asset management business.

The complex web of regulations governing the 2012 pension reform package poses a threat to businesses and the creation of new jobs, the British Chambers of Commerce warns.

Christopher Woods of FTSE Group discusses the advantages of market cap indices and what they can offer investors

The Leicestershire County Council Pension Scheme has challenged Aegon Asset Management to deliver £10m annual investment outperformance after handing the firm a £2bn asset allocation mandate.

IRELAND - Falling French and German bond yields coupled with declining equity markets in August have left Irish pension funds with the renewed prospect of funding difficulties, Hewitt Associates says.

US - The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has updated guidance over increasing transparency in the financial reporting of companies with multiemployer pensions.

Nervous advisers are recommending clients stick with their existing pension arrangements, even where there is good reason to transfer, because of the FSA's "heavy-handed" crackdown on pension switching.

The economic downturn in 2009 saw pension funds swing towards corporate bonds. But now the dust has settled, Laura Blows questions their current role

The Pensions Regulator is facing a backlog of post-credit crunch funding disputes as trustees and companies attempt to plug scheme deficits.

The future of EMI is in "significant doubt" after the employer and scheme trustees failed to reach agreement over funding arrangements for its pension deficit.