The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the world’s largest pension fund, has beaten industry benchmarks over the first quarter of 2011, but fell behind its internal benchmarks. The scheme’s global equity program trounced the average performance of its peers.

According to the Calpers quarterly review published yesterday, the $233.6bn scheme returned 4.09% over the first quarter of 2011, beating the Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service Public Fund Median by 0.29 percentage points. The Wilshire index currently includes over 900 plans worth $2.6 trillion.