Last month’s US Federal Reserve interest rate hike helped wipe £14bn off FTSE 350 defined benefit (DB) pension scheme deficits in December, according to Mercer.
The consultant’s Pensions Risk Survey found accounting deficits fell to £64bn at the end of December from £78bn at the end of November, after the Fed increased the base rate to 0.25%.
It said the rate increase pushed up bond yields which in turn reduced schemes’ liabilities, despite falls in equity markets.
At 31 December, asset values were £640bn, a fall of £6bn from £646bn as at 30 November, and liability values were £704bn, representing a fall of £20bn compared to the corresponding figure of £724bn the previous month.
On a year-on-year basis, the deficit fell £10bn from £74bn at the end of December 2014. Mercer said the improvement was primarily driven by increases in asset values from £624bn to £640bn.
Increases in bond yields over the year, which would reduce liabilities, were offset by increases in market expectations of inflation resulting in a slight rise in liabilities from £698bn to £704bn, it added.
Mercer senior partner in the retirement business Ali Tayyebi said: “The year ended of a positive note with deficits reducing over the month of December. However, deficits have remained at broadly the same level now for the last four calendar year ends going back to the end of 2012, and this highlights that progress towards a genuine and sustained improvement in funding positions has been a challenge for some time.
“The fall in global stock markets, precipitated by the sharp fall in the Chinese stock market on the first trading day in 2016 points to this challenge continuing for some time yet. That being the case, then effective risk management is more likely to be about small well-timed steps, rather than waiting for a major improvement in conditions, combined with effective monitoring to spot opportunities for risk reduction and risk transfer.”
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