Regions

GLOBAL - ETFs are experiencing explosive product growth and offer untapped potential for institutional investors, according to a State Street report.

GLOBAL - Dissatisfied institutional investors launched a spate of managerial reviews as returns flagged during the first half of 2009, research from bfinance revealed.

GLOBAL - Pension funds look set to fall tantalizingly short of enjoying their best year of investing in hedge funds since 1999, although any gains from 2009 will be welcomed after the alternative asset class suffered its worst ever losses the year before....

EUROPE - Business model alignment with Ucits IV will compel companies to improve their operating models, Ernst &Young said.

US -California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger equated the state's rising pension costs to a "locomotive" and pledged to make pension reform a priority in 2010 in his annual State of the State address yesterday.

GLOBAL - TCW's purchase of Metropolitan West Asset Management may be a predictor of things to come as independent firms will drive merger and acquisition activity in 2010, investment bank Jefferies said.

US - Denver-based asset manager Janus Capital Group has hired Richard Weil from rival PIMCO as its chief executive officer.

EUROPE - Introducing collective defined contribution schemes would not breach European law despite one government citing it as a reason to abandon risk sharing, a lawyer said.

Lynn Strongin-dodds discusses how timber has outperformed both equities and bonds over a 20-year time horizon

UK/US - American asset manager Neuberger Berman has replaced its defined contribution scheme for UK employees with a new group stakeholder arrangement.