News

It has been a "horrific" month for the London Pensions Fund Authority which has suffered a 20pc drop in assets, chief executive Mike Taylor has told PP .

Three trustees were ordered to repay £411,000 after loaning half of the scheme's assets to the failing sponsor and making questionable investments in US property.

CANADA - The Canadian government is looking at ways to ease pension funding obligations, following calls from the industry to protect Canadians from the consequences of the recent meltdown of global financial markets.

GLOBAL - Expectations on institutional investors' allocation to private equity are likely to be depressed for the next six months, following a sharp decline in Q3 to the lowest quarterly total since 2005, according to a survey by Preqin.

GLOBAL - Fiduciary management has completely transformed the Dutch pension industry over the past three years, BlackRock says.

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Investors are flocking to cash funds thanks to the sub-prime crisis. But are all cash funds equal? And are they "safe" investments? Giovanni Legorano investigates

UK - Trustees of the largest 200 privately sponsored pension plans may have to ask their sponsoring companies for an addition £45bn (US$73.9bn) for the next five years to make up for huge shortfalls, Aon has warned.

US - The US$19bn Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) may have to be bailed out by the taxpayer following a loss of $3.6bn in assets, the scheme's executive director has warned.

SOUTH KOREA - Blackstone Group LP, manager of the world's largest buyout fund, will invest US$2bn in South Korean companies, infrastructure projects and real estate, the Korean National Pension Service has said.