Regions

KYRGYZ - The Asian republic of Kyrgyz will be drawing up a comprehensive reform of its pension system and increasing its pensions by 10% in 2007.

GLOBAL - The number of institutional investors using US ETFs or HOLDRS rose 27% in the last year, according to a report issued by Deborah Fuhr, executive director of investment strategies at Morgan Stanley.

MALAYSIA - Five members of the Employees Provident Fund have been jailed for making fraudulent withdrawals from the fund.

GLOBAL - Man Investments grew its institutional funds under management by US$2.7bn to $22.2bn in the half year ended 30 September 2006, while overall assets grew US$6.9bn.

GLOBAL - Pension funds must put more pressure on investment managers to improve transparency in commission recapture and clarify much of the confusion surrounding unbundling.

EUROPE - Rutley European Property Limited (REPL) is to list on the London and Channel Islands Stock Exchanges and raise up to £200m through a public share offer.

EUROPE - BlackRock has launched the Merrill Lynch (ML) European Property Fund of Funds, which will invest in unlisted diversified property vehicles across Europe.

GLOBAL - Institutional property investors are being pushed into new markets as far abroad as Asia and Africa as demand far outstrips supply in traditional property markets, F&C has claimed.

GLOBAL - Allianz Group's asset management division registered net inflows of €9.7bn in the third quarter 2006.

GLOBAL - UK real estate allocations are at a cyclical low with institutional investors far underweight their desired allocation to property in multi-asset class portfolios, according to Fidelity International.