Global

GLOBAL - Wilshire Associates and Dow Jones Indexes have launched a global version of their US real estate indexes, the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Real Estate Securities Index (RESI) and its subset, the Dow Jones Global REIT Index.

GLOBAL - The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has flagged up the "prudent person principle" as its core philosophy within newly released guidelines on pension fund asset management.

GLOBAL - Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI) has grown assets under management to e942bn in 2005, as 89% of its assets outperformed their benchmark over a three-year period.

GLOBAL - F&C Asset Management recorded net institutional outflows of £1bn in 2005 with the Netherlands business hit hardest.

GLOBAL - Pensions systems require a framework of sufficientemployment opportunities and acceptable levels of earnings to avoid "poverty everywhere", a new paper has found.

GLOBAL - There is no silver bullet for the challenges faced by pension funds and institutional investors looking to develop and implement active ownership strategies in order to safeguard their beneficiaries' interests, law firm Schiffrin & Barroway has...

SOUTH AFRICA - Actuary Peter Ghavalas and six accomplices have been charged with defrauding R213m (US$34m) from pension funds over an eight year period, the Financial Services Board (FSB) announced today.

GLOBAL - Greg Kerr and Jorry Noeddekaer are set to join New Star Asset Management as fund managers within its institutional team, Global Pensions can exclusively reveal.

GLOBAL - Consulting firm Hymans Robertson has questioned the wisdom of pension funds diversifying into commodities to improve risk-adjusted returns, describing the asset class as "sub-optimal".

JAMAICA - The government has announced an overall increase of 66.66% in national insurance benefits (NIS), expected to cost JM$10bn (US$150m) over the next three years.