Investment

The Association of Consulting Actuaries has blasted the three main political parties' pledges on pensions as "threadbare at best" and "positively damaging at worst".

US - The median pension fund for S&P 500 companies returned 16.2% in 2009, the highest level in five years, according to data by Wilshire Consulting.

When I wrote a story on the Lib Dem manifesto pledges on pensions, I hardly thought it would matter. They wouldn't win anyway.

SWITZERLAND - Banking group SYZ is set to acquire State Street Global Advisors' (SSgA) institutional Swiss fixed income activities.

NEW ZEALAND - The New Zealand superannuation fund has reported a strong performance for the first quarter of 2010, boosted by continued investor appetite for stocks worldwide.

NETHERLANDS/SOUTH AFRICA - APG, the investment arm of giant Dutch pension fund ABP, has committed US$250m to Pallinghurst, an investment company specialising in natural resources.

UK - Aviva has confirmed plans to close both the Aviva and RAC final salary schemes to future accruals.

Giovanni Legorano speaks to Robert Gardner, co-founder and co-chief executive at Redington. Gardner takes us through some of the issues and opportunities pension funds are dealing with in the current market environment: inflation, the evolution of liability...

UK - The pension industry should engage more with people on how much they invest into their pension pot rather than focusing on the specific investment advice, industry figures said.

US - The average Swiss pension fund tipped over the 100% funding mark in the first quarter, up 10 percentage points from a year earlier, according to Swisscanto's Pension Fund Monitor.