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Article: BELTWAY BARGAINING: PBGC bailout clouds benchmark change; Replacing 30-year Treasury bond as funding bellwether could run afoul of politics.(News)
- Article from:
- Pensions & Investments
- Article date:
- February 3, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Crain Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Vineeta Anand
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's efforts to bail out the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. could complicate corporate plan sponsors' campaign to replace the benchmark for calculating liabilities and contributions.
With the steep decline in interest rates on the 30-year Treasury bond over the past several years, employer groups have been lobbying legislators and regulators to let them replace it as the benchmark for funding pension plans. They want to use a higher interest rate based on a composite of high-grade corporate bond indexes. Employers got temporary relief when Congress last March permitted them to adopt a wider margin ...