Capital MarketsNGIPension and Benefits
March 5, 2020

Actuarial Agony: Falling Interest Rates and the Plight of Pension Fund Managers

Private equity helps matters, but track records of outperformance don’t sway actuaries. Falling interest rates are pushing down the expected return on assets (EROA) at pension funds, an unwanted development for all managers and especially aggravating, perhaps, for those who have historically been able to outperform expectations. That was among the takeaways from a recent NeuGroup pension roundtable. Blame it on the actuaries. The pension fund manager at a major media company maintained an EROA of 7.5% over the last…
BankingCash & Working CapitalNGI
February 27, 2020

A Treasurer Grows Frustrated with a Top US Lender and Takes It down a Notch

Seeking a bigger return on its capital as rules tighten, the bank wanted a larger share of wallet. One of the largest US commercial lenders is aggressively seeking more return—share of wallet—for the credit it provides corporates, prompting at least one borrower to say “enough” and downgrade the bank’s rank in its loan syndicate. That takeaway emerged at a recent NeuGroup meeting where members exchanged insights about syndicated loan market trends and discussed which banks are eager to extend credit…
Cash & Working CapitalNGI
February 18, 2020

Negative-Rate Concerns Spreading to Pension Funds

US MNCs with European pension funds are being forced to contend with negative rates in Europe. Although the likelihood of negative interest rates in the US still seems remote, in Europe they’ve been a reality for several years, and pension funds are now grappling with what that means.  In a recent NeuGroup meeting, the head of pension investments at a multinational corporation (MNC) with several European funds noted that for the first time the company will have to use negative interest rates to value liabilities, specifically…