US pension problems on a par with S&L crisis, says Hancock

The burgeoning deficit in defined benefit pension plans in the United States has reached such proportions that only the US government can bail out the sector, said Peter Hancock, former chief financial officer at JP Morgan and president of financial boutique Integrated Finance.

"The [pensions] crisis is on the same scale as the thrift [savings and loans] crisis and can only be solved by the US government," Hancock told delegates attending the opening session of Risk magazine's ninth Risk USA conference in Boston this morning.

Hancock believes the fallout in equities in the past few years and declining interest rates, which have caused significant short-falls in defined benefit pension plans - schemes where the employer contributes and supports the fund - have caused