The California Public Employees' Retirement System (Calpers), the largest pension fund in the world, has been forced to publish quarterly performance data on its private equity funds after settling a lawsuit with the San Jose Mercury News.

The settlement will have significant repercussions for the level of transparency in the US private equity industry, placing greater pressure on other pension funds to reveal details of their venture capital investments. In October this year, the University of Texas Investment Management Company (Utimco) threw its performance open to scrutiny, much to the dismay of many private equity houses.