North America

CANADA - Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) may bid for private equity assets including those owned by UK's Wellcome Trust Ltd. to take advantage of depressed prices, chief executive officer David Denison says.

CANADA - The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has announced a CAN$5.3bn (US$4.3bn) decline in asset values over the first half of the fiscal year, resulting in the fund's value falling to $117.4bn.

CANADA - Part of the government's CAN$52bn (US$43.7bn) Employment Insurance (EI) surplus should be used to safeguard pensions, the UFCW union has said.

CANADA - The CAN$52bn Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System (OMERS) has confirmed it has taken a stake in Texan electricity company Oncor.

CANADA - The C$155bn (US$129bn) Caisse pension fund has sufficient liquidity to meet all its commitments to members in spite of the financial turmoil, its president says.

CANADA - Nova Scotia's finance minister Michael Baker said pension benefits for plan members eligible to retire in the next five years would not change.

CANADA - The Canadian government is looking at ways to ease pension funding obligations, following calls from the industry to protect Canadians from the consequences of the recent meltdown of global financial markets.

CANADA - British Columbia (BC) is to create a 'first of its kind' mutual pension savings scheme for the 75% of workers in the province without access to a retirement plan.

CANADA - Public and private pension funds consider generating returns in the current environment to be the biggest problem facing retirement plans at the moment, a study by Fidelity Investments' institutional asset management arm has found.

US - The New Jersey public pension funds incurred a dramatic loss during last month, posting a loss in excess of US$5bn in the value of their assets under management.