Regions

GLOBAL - Global pension funds are increasingly requesting customised fixed income performance benchmarks that exclude exposure to asset classes, market sectors and countries that breach macro-economic indicators.

US - The New York State Common Retirement Fund has hired The Rock Creek Group to run the first mandate in its new emerging managers hedge fund programme, and said a new emerging managers real estate programme is in the works.

EUROPE - Gartmore has joined the trend of hedge funds launching onshore portfolios for EU-based pensions, which face exclusion from offshore products under proposed EU regulation of the alternatives industry.

US - Barr Rosenberg, chairman of AXA Rosenberg, and Tom Mead, head of research, both co-founders, have resigned after an investigation into the reporting of a coding error found the two did not follow firm protocol.

NORWAY/ASIA - Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's second largest, will increase investments in Asia, as the region leads the global economic recovery, said Norges Bank Governor Svein Gjedrem.

US - Emerging markets specialist Gramercy has hired the former co-heads of JP Morgan Asset Management's emerging markets debt group to launch new strategies focused on the asset class, Gramercy said.

GLOBAL - PIMCO has warned the global economy faces the threat of rising inflation, driven partly by central banks using it as a solution to fiscal deficits.

AFRICA - Investec Asset Management, the South African money manager with $70 billion in assets, said its investments in Africa, excluding South Africa, may triple in the next two to five years as investors seek growth markets.

UK/GLOBAL - Schemes must increase their skills in sustainability governance and publicly disclose how their responsible investment strategies are implemented, a UKSIF report urges.

BP has been sued by a former employee over losses to the company's retirement plan caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.