Additional reforms of pension policy, particularly increasing the retirement age, will be needed in several countries due to the danger posed by expected demographic changes, an interim report by the EU Council says.

ITALY - The European Commission has once again put pressure on Italy to equalise the pension age of men and women, asking the country to move up its plans to have employees retiring at the same age by six years to 2012.

NETHERLANDS - The main Dutch social partners have reached a common position on the fact that state and second pillar pension age should rise to 66 from 65 in 2020.

US - The San Diego County Employees Retirement Association (SDCERA) Board of Retirement has decreased its assumed rate of return to 8%, from 8.25%, the assumed rate for the past 13 years.

NETHERLANDS/UK - Dutch pension fund and asset manager PGGM has allocated €75m (US$89.8m) to a UK property fund run by Standard Life.

The number of investors considering climate change policies as key to manager selection has doubled since 2007, but the actual integration of these policies into investment mandates has failed to take off, a report by the Institutional Investors Group...

EUROPE - The number of investors considering climate change policies as key to manager selection has doubled since 2007, but the actual integration of these policies into investment mandates has failed to take off, a report by the Institutional Investors...

EUROPE/ITALY - The European Commission has issued a new request for Italy to move swiftly to equalise the retirement age for men and women.

CANADA/US - An investor group including the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) is set to acquire IT solutions provider SonicWALL in a US$717m deal.

US - The New York State Common Retirement Fund posted a 25.9% return for fiscal year 2010, its third best performance in the past 20 years, according to a preliminary estimate from New York State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.