Current Account has, on past occasions, been critical of the funds performance of Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM), and with good cause. It's only fair, however, to give some plaudits to BIAM when it excels itself - and that it has done, according to the recent CAPS survey of British pooled pension funds.

BIAM might be a small player in the British pensions market, but it's a pretty impressive achievement to come second in the CAPS performance tables for last year with a 5.4 per cent return, headed only by Phillips & Drew's 7.1 per cent return for the year. In fact, only six out of the 67 fund managers in the CAPS survey managed to generate a positive return for their investors, with the median return for the year being a pathetic -3.8 per cent.

Irish fund managers did immeasurably better than their British counterparts last year, with figures for the 12 months to the end of November from Mercer - published in the latest issue of Irish Pensions - showing an average return of 8.9 per cent for the period.

But there were contrasting fortunes for fund managers either side of that average 12month return. Top of the table was the 17.2 per cent return from Canada Life/Setanta's Series D fund and Montgomery Oppenheim's 17 per cent return. Bottom of the class for the period was AIB Investment Managers, with a pretty puny 4.6 per cent return.

Of course, one-year figures simply give a snapshot in terms of pension fund performance, which should be measured over far longer terms - at least five years.

Best of the five-year performers are, ahem, Equitable Life with 19 per cent and New Ireland with 18.8 per cent, with Standard Life, Progressive Life and Irish Life occupying the bottom three places. Montgomery Oppenheim are not included in the Mercer five-year figures, but were far and away the top performers over three years with returns of 21.7 per cent against an industry average of 15.7 per cent.

Some food for thought there for pension fund trustees.