Regions

GREECE/GLOBAL - Greece has pledged to undertake a pensions overhaul as part of the structural reforms agreed with its partners in the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a €110bn (US$144bn) rescue package.

GLOBAL - Institutional investors should search existing and new market opportunities to build more diversified portfolios, Towers Watson said.

GLOBAL - Institutional investors are increasingly investing in exchange traded funds (ETFs), a report by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) revealed.

EUROPE - Total assets managed in Europe grew by €2trn (US$2.6) to €12.8trn in 2009, estimates from European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) revealed.

GLOBAL - The International Accounting Standards Board has published an exposure draft of proposed amendments to IAS19, dealing with how pension costs are recorded in company accounts.

US - A group of institutional investors, shareholders in Lehman Brothers, have filed an amended complaint which names Lehman's former auditor Ernst & Young as an additional defendant.

GLOBAL - Institutional investors are showing increasing interest in active strategies following a first quarter of 2010 devoted to reassessing their asset allocations, BlackRock chairman and chief executive Laurence Fink said.

GLOBAL - Institutional investors' search for managers grew globally by 22% last year and pension funds are likely to show more interest in liability driven investment, data from Mercer revealed.

GLOBAL - Hedge funds managers are divided on what effect greater regulation will have on their products, a survey showed.

GLOBAL - Tectona G Capital and Investment Managers, GlobalReach Securities has launched a timber fund that could draw between US$130m - $200m of institutional money, the firm said.