News

US - The combined funding status of the 100 largest US corporate defined benefit pension plans fell $22bn in November, latest figures show.

Improving companies through corporate governance will remain "a fantasy" until pension trustees better align their managers' incentives, Mark Fawcett says.

Towers Watson has sold stochastic forecasting business eValue to fund analysis company Financial Express.

Academics from Oxford and Cambridge are demanding the Universities Superannuation Scheme restart its consultation on pension scheme changes because the current process is "defective."

US - PIMCO's co-CIO Bill Gross has poured $4.4m of his own money into five municipal bond funds run by the group in anticipation of a rally, Bloomberg reports.

FRANCE - Improving companies through corporate governance will remain "a fantasy" until pension trustees better align their managers' incentives, said Mark Fawcett, chief investment officer at the UK's National Employment Savings Trust.

UK - The 6,560 schemes monitored by the Pension Protection Fund reported an aggregate deficit of £1bn ($1.6bn) at the end of last month.

UK - The government has launched a public consultation on giving people under-55 early access to their pension.

US - The Department of Labor has obtained a court order against an investment management firm to return more than $1m to the Plumbers and Pipefitters National Pension Plan.

HUNGARY - Hungarian lawmakers yesterday backed a government bill that may force most of the Ft3trn ($14.5n) in private pension fund portfolios to move to the state as the Cabinet works to reduce public debt.