Europe

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.

UK - Insight Investment has shifted its socially responsible investment function to individual fund management teams following its acquisition by BNY Mellon Asset Management last year.

DENMARK - Danish pension fund ATP is set to select an information technology provider for its internal IT management and back office works at the end of February, the fund's CIO Per Rasmussen has confirmed.

EUROPE - Long-term UCITS funds attracted €19bn (US$27.4bn) in assets in November, marking the eighth consecutive month of gains, according to new data by the European Fund and Asset Management Association.

UK - Trustees of the £2bn (US$3.3bn) BAA Pension Scheme have appointed Cardano to advise the fund on all aspects of their investment strategy.

FINLAND - Neste Oil will transfer is supplementary pension plans to insurer OP Life Assurance, the firm said today.

UK - The final rules governing auto-enrolment into workplace pension schemes from 2012 were laid before parliament today.

Aggregate scheme funding improved by £60.1bn (US$97.1bn) in December 2009, latest figures from the Pension Protection Fund revealed.

ITALY - Fondenergia, the pension fund for the Italian energy sector employees, has awarded a €760m (US$1.1bn) risk-overlay mandate to Feri Institutional Advisors, marking the largest institutional mandate for the advisor in Italy.

GLOBAL - Dissatisfied institutional investors launched a spate of managerial reviews as returns flagged during the first half of 2009, research from bfinance revealed.