Asia

ASIA - AXA Real Estate Investment Managers (AXA REIM) has opened an office in Tokyo, to be headed up by former Babcock & Brown director Tomiji Hasegawa.

TAIWAN - Pioneer Investments has deepened its Asian focus and opened an office in Taipei, Taiwan.

MALAYSIA - THe Employees Provident Fund has modelled its performance management approach on the balanced scorecard methodology (BSC) in an effort to encourage a performance-based culture.

KOREA - Rising pension costs will deplete the Korean pension system's assets under the current parameters, International Monetary Fund (IMF) directors have warned.

SINGAPORE - Singapore's Central Provident Fund (CPF) board and IBM are believed to be close to settling the multi-million dollar lawsuit that has tainted their relationship.

INDIA - India's finance ministry is pushing public sector banks to adopt a new defined contribution pension scheme, known as the NPS, for fresh recruits which could potentially prove rich pickings for fund managers.

ASIA - European Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) players could soon tap Asia as a lucrative revenue source as the Euro market matures, said Marie-Pierre Ravoteur, co-head of the EasyETF development platform jointly managed by AXA Investment Managers and BNP...

JAPAN - Japanese institutional investors remain concerned about China's "poor" corporate governance and accounting standards, which will be key in determining their investment exposure in the country, said Joji Maki, head of Japanese equities at Baring...

ASIA - Former Fidelity director James Blair has joined Barclays Global Investors (BGI) as head of official institutions Asia ex Japan.

ASIA - The Abu Dhabi Pensions & Benefits Retirement Fund has selected Northern Trust as its first global custodian.