News

Tories urge review into pension fund "siphoning"; Former Gartmore chief to chair Hermes; Leading mandarins build £144m pension nests

Lucida Re - the Bermudan-based sister company of Lucida plc - has appointed Gary Crofts as managing director.

US - Michigan governor Jennifer M. Granholm plans to invest US$300m of Michigan's state pension fund in Michigan-based companies, it was announced last week.

GLOBAL - A clear majority - 70% - of respondents to a recent Global Pensions survey said they considered the increasing homogenisation of the global pensions industry to be "a good thing".

Top civil servants have pension pots worth almost £150m funded entirely by taxpayers, the Liberal Democrats claim.

ITALY - Italian pension funds are in need of an organisational overhaul to keep up with the evolution of fund management practices, a study by Mefop, the Italian society for the development of the pension fund market, has concluded.

US - Several top US pension funds are shifting their investment strategies away from traditional equities to focus on better-performing alternatives in a global market that has been less than kind to institutional investors.

CANADA - The pensions industry has been urged to always remember fundamental investment principles such as transparency, as losses from Canadian non-bank asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) become clearer.

US - CalPERS is seeking support for a proposal to give La-Z-Boy shareowners the right to elect directors annually.

UK - Hermes has announced the appointment of Glyn Jones as chairman of Hermes following the retirement of Richard Bernays, 65, who stepped down after three and a half years of service.