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Bill Requires Diversity in Calif. Pension Funds
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- California's public pension funds would have to report the ethnicity and gender of some of the outside investment managers they hire under a bill that passed the state Assembly on Thursday.

The bill states that businesses owned by women and minorities are not adequately represented in the state's pension fund portfolios, compared to their proportion of California's population. It passed on a 41-22 vote and now moves to the state Senate.

California's Public Employees' Retirement System, which is known as CalPERS, and the State Teachers' Retirement System, known as CalSTRS, hire external companies to manage parts of their investment portfolios.

The bill seeks to increase the pension funds' business with what it terms ''emerging investment managers.'' It defines those as qualified investment advisers who are women or members of a minority group, and who would manage a portfolio of between $10 million and $1 billion. ...

...The nation's largest public pension fund, which serves 1.6 million government employees and retirees, said it lost $55.2 billion in its 2008-09 fiscal year.

''It comes at precisely the wrong time, with CalPERS now facing a massive shortfall in its investment portfolio,'' said Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, who is running for U.S. Senate. ...