Investment

CHINA - The China Investment Corp. (CIC) announced returns on its global portfolio of -2.1% in 2008 in the sovereign wealth fund's first publicly reported annual report since its inception.

More than nine-tenths of senior industry figures expect "unsustainable" defined benefit schemes to continue to close to existing members because of cost pressures on sponsoring employers, latest Penrose Financial research reveals.

Government plans to gradually raise the retirement age to 68 may be increased to 70, David Norgrove predicts.

Friends Provident has once again entered discussions with Resolution Limited after receiving a "sufficiently improved" bid from the Clive Cowdery-led acquisition vehicle.

The trustees of the East of England Co-operative Society's two defined benefit pension schemes - worth a total of £78m - have appointed SEI to provide an integrated fiduciary management strategy.

GLOBAL - Art as an asset class has historically outperformed equities and deserves a place in any significant investment portfolio, a latest research published by Castlestone Management has claimed.

Barclays could modify its plans to close its final salary scheme to future accruals in a bid to address the concerns of thousands of workers.

The Pension Protection Fund and similar lifeboat funds are "dangerous black holes", the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says.

Emma Dunkley asks OECD's Edward Whitehouse about the implications of the financial crisis on pension schemes worldwide, and how governments are coping with the change

Pension funds are experiencing a second wave of innovation in the liability-driven investment market, as pension schemes increasingly use derivatives to gain synthetic exposure to asset classes, Redington Partners says.