News

Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca is confident it will reach a deal with unions to end renewed strike action over changes to the company's pension scheme.

GLOBAL - Have you missed the biggest stories in pensions this week? Find out below, as we list the top 10 most popular stories on www.globalpensions.com over the past seven days.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has raided the employee roster of rivals firms including Mercer and Towers Watson to appoint ten new senior employees to its pension advisory service.

Mercer has restructured its investments and retirement businesses and appointed Andrew Kirton to the new role of global chief investment officer.

GLOBAL - Mercer has reshuffled its top ranks and moved Andrew Kirton to the new role of global chief investment officer.

EUROPE - Cross-border passporting of schemes should be allowed between EU countries with similar social and labour law and pension systems, the Society of Pension Consultants says.

NORWAY - Norway's Finance Ministry issued a new formal mandate for the management of the Government Pension Fund Global, the world's second-largest sovereign wealth fund.

NETHERLANDS - Dutch pension assets managed by external managers soared by 21% in the year ended March 31 to €922bn ($1.3trn), a report by consultancy Bureau Bosch shows.

GLOBAL - Over a third of investors intend to increase their allocations to hedge funds in 2011 and only 10% said they would decrease the money they put into the industry, according to a survey by Preqin.

EUROPE - The long-anticipated Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive has been passed into law following a plenary vote of the European Parliament.