Turkey

TURKEY - HSBC is to manage all of Allianz Turkey's personal pension funds as part of a partnership deal between the two companies.

Towers Watson has expanded its presence in Turkey by establishing a new subsidiary in Istanbul.

TURKEY - Anadolu Hayat Emeklilik AS, Turkey's biggest manager of pension funds, has started buying the first lira- denominated bonds ever sold by local banks to benefit from higher returns than are available on government debt.

GLOBAL - The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) today voted to not move forward with plans to eliminate the use of government bonds to determine discount rates.

GLOBAL - The average assets to gross domestic product ratio for OECD pension funds dropped from 75.5% of GDP in 2007 to 63.4% in 2008, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

TURKEY - ING has agreed to pay €110m for Oyak Emeklilik, Turkey's only voluntary pension fund for private pension fund management.

TURKEY - The Turkish Army pension plan is to invest outside of Turkey for the first time.

TURKEY - The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has urged Turkey to abolish restrictions on pension funds' portfolio limits and allow them a stake in the governance of the companies they are invested in.

TURKEY - Investment contributions to the voluntary Individual Pension System (IPS) rose from e109m in 2004 to e539.5m, according to the Pension Monitoring Centre's quarterly report.

TURKEY - Emerging markets investment management specialist Charlemagne Capital has launched a fund that aims to tap into the economic and financial potential of Turkey.