Regions

US - Trustees at the Fresno County Employees' Retirement Association (FCERA) have decided to axe the scheme's infrastructure investments in favour of boosting its commodities allocation.

AUSTRALIA - AMP Capital Investors voted on 473 resolutions in the first half of this year, the asset manager said in its biannual corporate governance report.

UK/Global - London-based Veritas Asset Management is wooing pension funds into its global equity strategy, which is currently dominated by retail investors.

US - Corporate pension funds outperformed all other institutional investors in the quarter ending June 30, according to data from consulting firm Wilshire Associates.

FRANCE- AXA earnings; CANADA- Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec; AUSTRALIA- Super review panel

EUROPE - The European Union Alternative Investment Fund Managers directive could cost Europe's pension fund industry up to €25bn (US$36bn) a year if implemented in its current form, the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) claimed.

Emma Dunkley speaks to Edward Whitehouse, head of pension-policy analysis in the social policy division at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) about how pension funds around the world have coped with the economic crisis

GLOBAL - Julius Baer has created a structured version of its Physical Gold Fund, available to pension funds and other institutional investors.

GLOBAL - Net outflows from long-term investment funds worldwide slowed to €5bn (US$7.1bn) in the first quarter of 2009 after an average outflow of €211bn per quarter in the second half of 2008, data by the European Fund and Asset Management Association...

GLOBAL - Brazil has the worst pension savings record, with 84% of people not holding any pensions savings, according to a survey of 15 countries by Datamonitor.