Regions

Including: NORWAY - Oil fund loses 1.3%; US - Texas TRS loses $25bn; SWEDEN - AP4 invests in infrastructure

CZECH REPUBLIC - Czech pension funds' profits fell from CZK3.5bn (US$176.4m) to CZK2.2bn (US$110.8m) year-on-year in the January-September period, according to data released by the National Association of Pension Funds (APF).

GLOBAL - Global Wealth Allocation (GWA) is to restructure, moving part of its business to New York and setting up a presence in Australia for the first time.

Including: US - Russell Reed opens clean-tech investment manager; US - New Hampshire names interim director; UK - Xafinity wins Thales contract

EUROPE - The European Union proposed to regulate Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and other credit-rating companies, blaming them for ignoring conflicts of interest and risks that helped fuel the financial crisis.

US - Marsh & McLennan chief Brian Duperreault has urged treasury secretary Henry Paulson to take action to bridge the short-term pension funding crisis through a set of proposals to help companies with defined benefit schemes.

GLOBAL - European and US real estate opportunities are likely to emerge from the current economic crisis, allowing investors and pension funds to acquire assets which produce highly competitive returns, Invesco says.

RUSSIA - Not even the so-called BRIC countries survived unscathed the credit crisis, despite performing well above western countries in recent years, according to participants of a recent roundtable in Moscow.

EUROPE - Dutch pension funds, including the giant ABP, are among investors in the DIF Infrastructure II fund which has been closed at approximately €200m.

GLOBAL - MSCI Barra will introduce a number of changes to the MSCI Global Investable Market Indices, following its November 2008 Semi-Annual Index Review.