Asia

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.

ASIA - Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev has promised the minimum state pension will increase in conjunction with the country's economic budget.

JAPAN - Commodities look set to recieve billions of dollars worth of investment from Japanese institutional investors, despite sky-high prices and market uncertainty.

JAPAN - The All Japan Liquor Merchants Association is suing Credit Suisse and other parties for Y16bn ($136m) claiming it incurred severe losses after not being briefed on the risks of its pension fund making investments in foreign bonds.

MALAYSIA - The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) posted returns of RM3.6bn (US$980m) over the second quarter of 2006.

JAPAN - Aberdeen Asset Management will open an office in Tokyo in September to take advantage of what it sees as a bouyant market with potential both on the investment and institutional client side.

KOREA - Government plans to consolidate the imposition and collection of its four public insurance systems, including pensions, should see a rise in pension contributions by the self employed.

JAPAN - Former Mizuho Pension Research Institute chairman, Shoji Yamada, has joined North Trust Global Investments (NTGI) as executive advisor - part of the firm's expansion of its Japan team.

MALAYSIA - Malaysia's 42 trust fund managers will increase transparency and tighten their procedures after the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) called for the introduction of measures to protect contributors from unnecessary losses when investing their...