News

AUSTRALIA - Superannuation minister Nick Sherry has urged Australians to focus on the medium to longer term rate of return from their superannuation funds, in a response to looming negative results for 2008.

MIDDLE EAST - Pension funds are increasingly demanding investment opportunities in the Gulf region, a survey by exchange traded funds provider Lyxor has shown.

GLOBAL - The financial community needs to agree a common set of terms for the burgeoning environmental and responsible investment (RI) sector if it is to achieve its full potential, AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) has warned.

More than 90 responses have been received by the Accounting Standards Board on the discussion paper ‘The Financial Reporting of Pensions'.

INCLUDING: NETHERLANDS - AEGON appointments; GLOBAL - Emerging markets under-represented; UK - Henderson wins £130m FI mandate

The amount needed to secure the deficit of FTSE100 pension schemes in full with an insurer has improved from £200bn to £110bn, a Pension Capital Strategies study shows.

Nearly one-in-five workers saving for retirement are not contributing to a pension, a study shows.

NORDICS - The €215bn (US$338.4bn) ABP fund has taken a minority stake in Norwegian shopping centre company Steen & Strøm.

ASIA - Asian institutional investors do not have access to the same level of asset management service and investment expertise enjoyed by their counterparts in other regions, a study by Greenwich Associates has highlighted.

UK - Extending the adult rate national minimum wage to include 21-year-olds will have a knock-on effect on UK employer pension contributions after 2012, Watson Wyatt has revealed.