US - Northern Trust has completed its acquisition of hedge fund administrator Omnium from Chicago-based Citadel.

US institutional investment plan sponsors had their fourth consecutive quarter of positive results in the second quarter of 2011, research shows.

GLOBAL - Introducing environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into an investor's stock selection process has no negative impact and is more likely to lead to outperformance over the longer term, research suggests.

UK/CANADA/US - The Court of Appeal today heard the final day of argument in the case between the administrators of Nortel and Lehmans and the UK Pensions Regulator.

China is considering launching a new retirement savings programme similar to US 401k plans, the country's state media has reported.

GLOBAL - Have you missed the biggest stories in pensions this week? Find out below, as we list the top 10 most popular stories on www.globalpensions.com over the past seven days.

US - Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is to launch an investigation into how financial institutions handle the state pension's investments.

JAPAN - Japan's corporate pension funds have twice as much money entrusted to pooled accounts run by life companies and trust banks as they have under mandates awarded to asset managers, research shows.

CANADA/UK - The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) has signed a deal to acquire Scotland-based shipping services company V.Group for $520m.

UK - The number of pension funds retendering their investment consultant services fell sharply in 2010 from a high of 5.2% of funds in 2009 to 3.5% last year, research suggests.