News

Darling to write off £100m in pension plunder; Firm at centre of storm has been paying public sector pensions for over 170 years; Pension Insurance buys Thorn employee fund

Around 95,000 retired public sector workers have been overpaid £126m by several administrators including Xafinity Paymaster over three decades.

US - The New Jersey Senate delayed deciding whether to allow all 566 municipalities to delay US$540m in payments to the state pension system amid the economic slowdown and slowing tax receipts.

EUROPE - The New Year will herald in an investment environment radically different to the past two decades, consultant Watson Wyatt warns.

AUSTRALIA - The standard of employer-nominated default funds for superannuation savings should be improved and fees brought down, the Australia Institute and Industry Superannuation Network have proposed.

ROMANIA - Interamerican Pensions is set to takeover Bancpost Pensions - Romania's eleventh largest fund in the mandatory private pensions market.

CURRENT double-A corporate bond yields throw doubt on the validity of current accounting standards, Barnett Waddingham says.

PIMCO has launched an unconstrained bond strategy in a bid to offer schemes the potential for higher returns.

US - The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) has widened its asset allocation ranges for equities, global fixed income, real estate and cash, to deal with steep declines in global equity markets which saw it breach its policy.

SWITZERLAND - Healthcare is now more of a concern than retirement provision for the Swiss, according to the latest Credit Suisse Worry Barometer.