Global

William M Mercer has pushed the assets managed by its master trust over the AUS$3bn mark for the first time, making it the largest master trust aimed exclusively at companies looking to outsource in-house staff pension funds in Australia.

Finnish securities firm Evli Securities will offer fund managers of pension funds the option of online trading by the end of this year.

Latin America has proved disappointing for fund managers, according to global ratings agency Standard & Poor's.

Schroder Investment Management has appointed Susan Huang as director, US fixed income products at its New York office.

Sprucegrove Investment Management and BPI Global Asset Management have been awarded C$100m (US$65.3m) global equities mandates from the C$2.5bn ($1.36bn) City of Montreal Pension Fund.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) have embarked on a joint venture to introduce single-stock futures for institutional pension funds, retail investors and the public.

UBS Asset Management (UBS-AM) is set to acquire asset management company RT Capital Management from Royal Bank of Canada for a maximum of $230m.

International pensions magazine, Global Pensions, hosted the inaugural European Pensions awards in Brussels last week.

The $129.4bn (EUR150bn) Dutch pension fund, ABP, and $290bn US pension fund TIAA-CREF are among eight investors investing in a real estate technology incubator.

The longevity revolution could bankrupt European countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy to the tune of 200% of annual GDP by 2050, according to Peter Jeffreys, managing director of Standard & Poor's index services for Europe.