News

Trustees of schemes which qualify for help from the Financial Assistance Scheme will be banned from buying annuities for their members later this month.

UK - The GlaxoSmithKline Common Investment Fund has awarded Goodman Property Investors a €150m mandate to invest in European property portfolios.

UK - The £1.4bn Kingfisher pension scheme has awarded a 130/30 mandate to Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a second unconstrained, 130/30 mandate to Wegelin's Active Indexing 130/30 strategy.

AUSTRALIA - The Future Fund has appointed Tony Day as head of strategy and as part of the push to build its investment capability.

INCLUDING: UK - Bush rejoins Hewitt; US - Mellon Transition Management new President and COO; UK - Investec appoints global equities specialist; Europe - Huge growth in volumes of ETFs; IRELAND - Pensions Board prosecutes employer.

IIMIA Investment Group has announced plans to merge with multi-asset manager MitonOptimal Group - a move allowing it to benefit from developments in the UK pension fund market.

INCLUDING: FRANCE - French unions wary of pension reform; US - Court upholds pension case; CHINA - China to issue 20 pension licenses in Oct; ISRAEL - Israel wants US pension funds to shun Iran-linked firms; RUSSIA - Russian investor targets pensions...

NETHERLANDS - A leading class action analyst has predicted that new legal proceedings may offer pension funds an alternative to participating in US class action cases.

THE GlaxoSmithKline Common Investment Fund has hired Goodman Property Investors to run a €150m (£102m) indirect continental European separate account mandate.

UK - The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has just released its latest figures, showing poor performance throughout August, having been battered by the continuing market turmoil.