News

DENMARK - The DKK55bn (US$10.6bn) Danish insurer SEB Pension has announced it will keep its high exposure to fixed income and alternative investments unchanged this year, despite posting negative returns on these asset classes for the first half of 2008,...

UK - Schemes with liability-driven investment strategies constructed using Lehman Brothers swaps and derivatives will face significant upheaval, industry experts say.

ITALY/US - Continuing uncertainty over the international impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers has forced the Italian pension fund regulator and Texas Teachers Retirement System (TRS) to clarify their positions on the defunct bank.

International securities lawyer Mark Willis has joined American legal firm Spector Roseman & Kodroff.

RUSSIA - The government has announced reforms to the way pension funds, insurance companies and state financial institutions can invest in the markets after two days of central bourse closures left the Russian economy reeling.

UK - SCA Packaging workers have settled on a pay deal at the expense of their defined benefit (DB) pension scheme.

Alternative savings options are more attractive to many employees than pensions, a Mercer poll reveals.

Employers with defined contribution pension schemes need to implement a "smart-save" system in order to increase the level of contributions, BlackRock says.

Trustees may be forced to make sponsoring employers insolvent in order to protect the benefits of scheme members, Grant Thornton says.

Pension took a back seat to wider economic concerns at the Trades Union Congress' conference in Brighton last week.