UPDATE 2-US pension agency chief warns of solvency risk
hxxp://www.reuters.com/...ceNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=6443995
WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The longer-term solvency of the U.S. agency that insures pensions is at risk, threatened by troubled airlines and other companies failing to fund their retirement plans, the agency's director said on Thursday.
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Director Bradley Belt said he expects to report a significantly increased deficit for fiscal 2004, which ended Sept. 30, eclipsing 2003's record $11.2 billion deficit for the single employer insurance fund.
"The longer-term solvency of the pension insurance program ... is at risk," Belt told lawmakers in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
The pension agency slipped into a deficit in 2002 after having to bail out failed pension plans in the steel industry.
Since then, troubled airlines have been straining the safety net for traditional pensions that guarantee a set payout at retirement.
.................
His agency faces $31 billion in exposure to struggling airlines, but he declined to lay all the blame on the aviation sector for the state of the pension fund, saying the industry's woes are symptomatic of broader pension problems.
"It seems to me that there is a possibility of a looming train wreck here that could cost the taxpayers of America untold billions of dollars," said Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Commerce Committee.
Der Ruhestand von den Baby-Boomer-Jahrgängen steht gerade bevor und die Ratten werden dann das sinkende Schiff der USA verlassen.
hxxp://www.reuters.com/...ceNewsArticle.jhtml?type=bondsNews&storyID=6443995
WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The longer-term solvency of the U.S. agency that insures pensions is at risk, threatened by troubled airlines and other companies failing to fund their retirement plans, the agency's director said on Thursday.
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. Director Bradley Belt said he expects to report a significantly increased deficit for fiscal 2004, which ended Sept. 30, eclipsing 2003's record $11.2 billion deficit for the single employer insurance fund.
"The longer-term solvency of the pension insurance program ... is at risk," Belt told lawmakers in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
The pension agency slipped into a deficit in 2002 after having to bail out failed pension plans in the steel industry.
Since then, troubled airlines have been straining the safety net for traditional pensions that guarantee a set payout at retirement.
.................
His agency faces $31 billion in exposure to struggling airlines, but he declined to lay all the blame on the aviation sector for the state of the pension fund, saying the industry's woes are symptomatic of broader pension problems.
"It seems to me that there is a possibility of a looming train wreck here that could cost the taxpayers of America untold billions of dollars," said Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Commerce Committee.
Der Ruhestand von den Baby-Boomer-Jahrgängen steht gerade bevor und die Ratten werden dann das sinkende Schiff der USA verlassen.
