Sovereign Wealth Funds The balancing act for Abu Dhabi’s new fund chief
(Source: Arabian Business.com)
The death last month of HH Sheikh Ahmed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has left a vacuum at the heart of the Abu Dhabi political and financial system and a big challenge for his imminent successor. The new head of the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund, whose appointment is expected imminently, will need to find a balance between delivering consistent returns and conservative values, say industry observers. Norway to curb oil fund's investment risk
(Source: Reuters)
OSLO - Norway's finance minister said on Friday the government was proposing to limit the risk in the active management of the country's sovereign wealth fund, but that parts of the fund would still be managed actively. "In our opinion there still ought to be some leeway for the fund to deviate from its benchmark portfolio," Finance Minister Sigbjoern Johnsen said in a statement. China CIC halves funding request to $100 bln –report
(Source: Reuters)
China Investment Corp (CIC), the country's $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, has cut by half, to $100 billion, the amount of new funding it is seeking from the government, according to domestic media. US Public Sector Pension Funds CalPERS Response to Stanford Policy Brief on Public Pension Funds
(Source: CalPERS)
Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research released a policy brief “Going For Broke: Reforming California’s Public Employee Pension Systems” that relies on outdated data and methodologies out of sync with governmental accounting rules and actuarial standards of practice. California Pensions Are $500 Billion Short, Stanford Study Says
(Source: BusinessWeek)
California’s three biggest pension funds are as much as $500 billion short of meeting future retiree benefits, a Stanford University report said. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund; the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the second-biggest, and the University of California Retirement System are understating their future liabilities by using projected rates of return that don’t properly account for investment risk, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy said today. Fed agency scanning certain Calpers transactions
(Source: Reuters)
Los Angeles's justice department is scrutinizing certain investment transactions of public pension funds, including Calpers, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Federal prosecutors are looking at whether potentially illegal payments were made to influence decisions on where to invest public pension fund money, the newspaper said. However, the investments under scrutiny are not very significant for Calpers, the $200 billion California Public Employees' Retirement Fund, the Journal said. State Debt Woes Grow Too Big to Camouflage
(Source: NY Times)
California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay. Watching the Watchers  Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company
Headquarters: Helsinki, Finland
Established: 1961 KEY PARTNERS
Involved in Nordic Engagement Cooperation with Folksam and KLP, with screening from GES Investment Services. Estimated asset base: 25.1 billion Euro as of September 30, 2009 OVERVIEW / MISSION
Ilmarinen describes its mission as: “As an authorized pension insurance company, Ilmarinen’s mission is to safeguard the statutory pension provision of those employees and self-employed persons it insures and to manage the investment assets that cover future pensions. Ilmarinen is owned by its policyholders, the persons insured with it and the owners of the guarantee capital.” BACKGROUND
Ilmarinen serves more than 35,000 employer companies and employs about 580 “specialists.” A page from SwissLife Network, in which Ilmarinen participates, calls Ilmarinen “the second largest pension insurer in Finland, founded in 1961.” The name Ilmarinen is borrowed from a figure in the Finnish epic poem, Kalevala. Ilmarinen was a blacksmith and inventor. | 
