Pensions’ credit crisis

The markets’ swoon isn’t the only problem plaguing pension plans, according to credit derivatives dealers. They are also dangerously exposed to their own corporate sponsors. Navroz Patel reports on recent efforts to convince pensions to hedge this risk

While investment performance has been a bone of contention between some large UK occupational pension schemes and their asset managers, there is now a potentially greater risk casting a shadow over such schemes: the possibility of default by the corporate sponsor. Cognisant of this, dealers have been pitching credit default swap protection to trustees as de facto sponsor insolvency insurance. Several houses claim to be close to completing their first deals, though all declined to name the