Business Report 8

SSL Wireless teams up with
Fareast Islami Life Ins
Business Desk

The Fareast Islami Life Insurance Company Limited and the SSL Wireless signed a deal in the Dhaka city on Thursday.
M Mosharraf Hossain, deputy managing director of Fareast Islami Life Insurance Company, and Sayeeful Islam, managing director of SSL Wireless, inked the deal, said a press release.
According to the deal, the SSL will provide mobile based services to the Fareast Islami Life Insurance Company.
The policy holders of the company will receive information of insurance in their cell phones.
Md Nazrul Islam, board chairman of Fareast Islami Life Insurance Company, Md Ali Hossain, managing director, M Tajul Islam, chairman, of the executive committee of the insurance company and senior executives of both the organisations were present on the signing occasion.

Japan pension investments see
$46b loss in FY07
Asia News Network . Tokyo

The group responsible for managing Japanese public pension reserves posted more than 5 trillion yen ($46.84b) in losses in fiscal 2007, due mainly to the US subprime mortgage loan crisis, sources said Thursday.
This marks the first time in five years losses have been reported for the public pension reserves for a single fiscal year.
Public pension reserves are managed by the Government Pension Investment Fund, an independent administrative corporation tasked with managing and investing reserve funds of public pension programmes.
Declines in worldwide share prices resulting from the subprime loan crisis combined with the yen's appreciation against the dollar saw yields on investments fall 6 per cent, the sources said.
The poor performance is expected to intensify calls for reviewing the management method of public pension reserves, observers said.
The organisation is commissioned by the health, labour and welfare minister and manages about 90 trillion yen ($843.17 billion) in the markets, out of the about 150 trillion yen ($1.40 trillion) of reserves from employees' pension and national pension programmes.
About 60 per cent of the funds have been invested in Japanese bonds and about 30 per cent in Japanese and foreign stocks.
In fiscal 2007, the investment gained 2.38 trillion yen ($22.29b) in yields in the first quarter. After the subprime loan problem surfaced, however, the investment performance deteriorated, recording deficits of 1.63 trillion yen ($15.27b) in the second quarter and 1.53 trillion yen ($14.33b) in the third quarter. The margin of losses was even bigger in the fourth quarter, according to the sources.
Under the programme, part of the yields are used for pension benefits.
Sources close to the GPIF said, however, that management losses would not seriously affect the financial health of the public pension programmes because about 7 trillion yen ($65.59 billion) of yields have been accumulated even taking into account the fiscal 2007 losses.
There are growing calls to raise the ratio of shares in the pension reserves' investment program with the aim of achieving higher yields.
In May, private-sector members of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy proposed a plan to reform the GPIF and employ financial experts from the private sector, and to offer them significant incentives.