News

DENMARK - The Danish central bank is opening a 30-year government bond to facilitate the Danish pension sector's hedging of liabilities.

US - The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has set its maximum insurance benefit for 2009 at US$54,000, up from $51,750 in 2008.

Emma Oakman looks at the mounting problems of the securities lending industry and asks leading figures how it will weather the storm

GLOBAL - Nearly half of the investors in the recently closed US$1.5bn UBS International Infrastructure Fund are pension funds predominantly from the UK, continental Europe and the US.

US - New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine defended the state pension system's decision to add US$143.5m to its investment in a losing BlackRock Inc. fund.

GLOBAL - Views on performance factors related to infrastructure have been taken for granted for too long and may be recalibrated by Moody's Investor Services to reflect new economic realities.

JLT Benefit Solutions has launched an expanded annuity service for trustees.

US - Most pension liabilities of US media and entertainment companies should remain modest in size relative to cash flows, despite Fitch Ratings' analysis predicting that companies should face weaker under-funded status heading into next year.

IRELAND - Irish pension managed funds had a return of -8.5% for the month of October, according to Hewitt Associates.

Liability driven investment (LDI) may rapidly be approaching mainstream in Europe, but the same cannot yet be said of the US. Andrew Sheen reports