International

Beijing has asked foreign institutions to apply to manage its holdings overseas, bringing closer formal approval for billions of dollars of pension funds to be invested in foreign stocks and bonds after nearly six years of debate on the issue in China.
FT.com / China /

Aujourd’hui, des fonds de pension, de grands assureurs et des institutionnels publics des différents continents ratifient à Paris les « Principes de l’investissement responsable ». C’est l’étape européenne du lancement de cette initiative entamé le 27 avril à New York autour de Kofi Annan.
Des investisseurs avec l’ONU

China’s State Security Fund Council said it has been approved by the Government to begin to invest overseas as of May 1 of this year. The fund was set up in 2000 by the Chinese Government as a strategic reserve for its ageing population, and its total asset was valued at 201.02 billion yuan (25.1 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2005. 
Xinhua – English

The new UK Pension Regulator said many trustees on the boards of company retirement plans lack skills for the job, despite a warning about this issue five years ago.  Pension trustee education lags behind what is necessary, the watchdog said. "Our experience is that the standard of governance of many schemes, especially smaller ones, is poor." 
Reuters.co.uk
The Pensions Regulator Website

Rolls-Royce has offered to pump £500m into its pension funds and increase the company’s contributions if employees accept closure of the final salary schemes to new members.  The engine manufacturer also wants to change the investment strategy in the company’s three schemes which had a deficit of £1.3bn at the end of last year.  The three pension schemes have 119,054 members.  Britain’s companies have been introducing measures to cut their pension deficits which have ballooned due to longer life expectancy and worse than expected returns in recent years. Many companies now only offer defined contribution schemes to new employees which do not require the company to specify how much will be paid out to pensioners.  In 2003 Rolls-Royce agreed to pump £567m into the Rolls-Royce Pension Fund. 
Telegraph | Money | Rolls Royce to pay ?500m into pension fund

US fiduciary wealth has surpassed individual wealth, presenting new opportunities for pension funds and other managed funds to leverage the weight of money to achieve corporate and social change.  Speaking at the CMSF conference, William Greider said the shift of money meant pension and other funds could steer corporate behavior to effect positive outcomes for their members, not just financially but in the workplace and in society more broadly.  Passive investment, meaning where it allowed poor corporate practice to carry on unchecked, was ultimately harmful to its members, regardless of short-term returns. This may include where funds invest in corporations which treat their employees badly or bring about negative social or environmental outcomes, for example. 
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UK pension funds are among investors backing a fundraising initiative for institutions that lend to the poor in developing countries. US investment bank Morgan Stanley and BlueOrchard Finance, a Geneva-based investment company, have created a vehicle that borrows from institutional investors to lend to a selection of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in countries from Colombia to Azerbaijan. The MFIs in turn make loans as small as $50 (£29) to fund first-time entrepreneurs excluded from conventional financial services. 
Telegraph | Money | Pension funds turn to developing world

Bis Ende 2005 haben 5,63 Millionen Deutsche einen Riesterrentenvertrag abgeschlossen. Allein im vergangenen Jahr sind – vor allem wegen der Einführung so genannter Unisextarife zum 1. Januar 2006 – mehr als 1,3 Millionen neue Verträge hinzugekommen, wie aus dem Alterssicherungsbericht der Bundesregierung hervorgeht. Danach hat der Deutsche Staat seit der Rentenreform von 2001 rund 551 Mio. Euro an Zulagen für den Aufbau einer Riesterrente ausbezahlt. Immer mehr sozialversicherungspflichtige Beschäftigte sind zudem mit einer betrieblichen Zusatzversorgung ausgestattet. In der Privatwirtschaft erhöhte sich ihr Anteil laut Bericht von Anfang 2002 bis Ende 2004 von 38 auf 46 Prozent.
Die Riesterrente ist auf dem Vormarsch

The board that writes accounting rules for American business is proposing a new method of reporting pension obligations that is likely to show that many companies have a lot more debt than was obvious before.  In some cases, particularly at old industrial companies like automakers, the newly disclosed obligations are likely to be so large that they will wipe out the net worth of the company.
Shocks Seen in New Math for Pensions – New York Times