Regions

EUROPE - European pension funds feel they need to focus on more frequent asset allocation to improve investment returns, a survey by State Street Corporation has found.

EUROPE - The group of pension funds and fund managers undertaking an initiative in which they will allocate 5% of their research budget to socially responsible investment (SRI) issues have laid down the criteria they will use to evaluate broker performance....

GLOBAL - Professional services firm Deloitte & Touche LLP has launched a new pension pooling offering which it says overcomes tax hurdles which previously made pension pooling "impossible".

GLOBAL - Glasgow-based Britannic Asset Management has launched its first hedge fund - the US$20m Britannic World Markets Fund - in the Caribbean.

EUROPE - Consultancy firm Watson Wyatt has lost a pension services mandate with Metso Mineral (UK) to Aon Consulting.

EUROPE - The French Asset Management Association (AFG - Association Français de la Gestion Financière) and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) will join the European Federation for Retirement Provision as full members on January 1.

EUROPE - ABP pensions director and board member Jaap Maassen will succeed Alan Pickering as the new chair of the European Federation of Retirement Provision (EFRP).

GLOBAL - FTSE Group and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have set up an advisory committee to oversee the new corporate governance index series set for launch later this year.

EUROPE - A group of major pension funds and fund managers, representing e330bn assets under management, have agreed to allocate 5% of their research budget to extra-financial issues and intangibles.

Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) have appointed Laurent Ducoin (pictured) to the European specialist equity team.