For the past two months, a document has sat on the home page of the London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) which would be the envy of many of its fellow defined benefit schemes. The document is simply, unequivocally headlined: “Your Pension Is Safe”.

Funds management is largely a fixed-cost business and with assets declining sharply due to both markets and redemptions, many managers are under financial pressure. Investors beware.

The US$10 billion sovereign fund New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZSF) has, in its typically transparent fashion, published a UN assessment of its adherence to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.

Asset consultant Watson Wyatt has recommended that its global clients suspend their securities lending programmes if they have any doubt about their arrangements with lending agents.

BNY Mellon Asset Management sees the financial crisis as a time of opportunity to increase its range of multi-affiliate firms through acquisition, according to its chairman, international, Jon Little.

While many pension funds have fled to safety in recent months due to the turmoil in global markets, pulling their capital out of equities and into bonds and cash, the Dutch pension giant ABP has not felt compelled to follow that course, preferring to stick to its original strategy, as designed in 2006.