Investment

Volatility in global equities and falling corporate bond yields in the last two weeks of June cancelled out much of the growth achieved by schemes over the past six months, Mercer says.

Asia/UK - Baring Asset Management has appointed Wayne Shum to the newly created role of head of institutional business for Asia.

Aviva Investors chief executive Alain Dromer has been named the next Association of British Insurers investment committee chairman.

US - Citigroup has agreed to pay $75m to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission claiming the firm misrepresented its exposure to sub-prime assets to investors.

Royal Mail has agreed to pay substantially higher pension contributions to plug the scheme's multi-billion pound deficit.

British Telecom is to challenge Ofcom's decision not to take into account its scheme deficit when setting its regulated charges.

US - The Florida Retirement System (FRS) Pension Fund posted a 14.03% return for the year to June 30, recording its greatest return over benchmark for the last 25 years.

The Macmillan Cancer Support pension scheme has appointed Mn Services as its fiduciary manager, to advise the trustees on their investment strategy.

UK - The government is proposing to scrap the default retirement age of 65 by October next year.

US - The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (Mass PRIM) beat its policy benchmark by 305 basis points in the past year helping to increase total assets by $3.6bn.