Europe

GLOBAL - Lane Clark & Peacock LLP (LCP) has partnered with Spanish consultant Novaster, in a bid to expand its reach in Spain and Latin America.

EUROPE - Schemes still favour equities despite market volatility, a J.P. Morgan Asset Management survey revealed.

UK - BlackRock Investment Management will transfer two real estate funds of funds worth £54.8m (US$90.4m) and €62.6m (US$93m) to Aviva Investors Global Services after the fund manager left the firm for Aviva.

US - Five Ohio pension funds have filed a lawsuit against the three ratings agencies for allegedly providing strong ratings to mortgage backed securities in exchange for kickbacks from the issuing firms.

UK - The discount rate used to calculate scheme liabilities in company accounts should be a risk-free rate, an Accounting Standards Board report confirms.

UK - Asset management firm Gartmore has confirmed it intends to float on the London Stock Exchange in mid-December.

GLOBAL - More than half of pension funds in Europe and the Americas have implemented some sort of liability driven investment (LDI) strategy in their portfolios, a poll by fiduciary manager SEI found.

UK - The Bank of England would like to see more uptake of index linked gilts by institutional investors, but appetite for the paper does not seem to be there.

UK - Uncertainty in inflation assumptions may have led FTSE 350 companies to collectively overstate or understate their pension liabilities by as much as £40bn (US$59.4bn), according to Mercer.

EUROPE - The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has launched a new programme to help pension funds understand water-related investment risks.