Investment

US - The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension, said private investment firms paid at least $125m to placement agents for help winning contracts to manage the fund's money.

Professional Pensions has launched a online poll in a further expansion of www.professionalpensions.com

UK - The Local Government Pension Scheme's deficit could swell to £60bn (US$97.8bn) this year if current trends continue, research from the Liberal Democrats revealed.

The Pensions Regulator could enforce mandatory standards of record keeping after its assessment of how trustees' focus has improved, industry figures predict.

EUROPE - Equity manager RCM, a subsidiary of Allianz Global Investors, is set to launch a diversified growth fund in the first quarter that invests only in exchange traded funds.

Around three quarters of charities have not assessed the impact of legislative changes to their pension strategy in 2012, Foster Denovo and ACEVO says.

SPAIN - Assets under management (AUM) of pension funds falling under the individual system category increased by 6.9% in 2009 to €51.6bn (US$74.8bn) largely due to positive investment returns, data from research company VDOS Stochastics revealed.

Welcome to your New Year crisis! Just before Christmas, when all good folk were doing their bit to boost the UK economy with a bout of intensive retail therapy, two ratings agencies downgraded the rating of Greece's sovereign debt.

The senior editorial team at PP has passed the Pension Management Institute's Retirement Provision Certificate.

The Investment Governance Group has handed over its first consultation document to Paul Myners for feedback.