Fitch Ratings looked at 230 U.S. nonfinancial companies with defined-benefit pension plans and found that 160 of them had plans that were less than 80% funded, Barron's reports. Fitch said the companies' median funding level fell to 74.4% last year from 78.5% in 2010. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 cited the 80% funding level as the threshold for "at risk" plans.

Fitch expects many of the companies to have to make "material" contributions to their plans. But it says it does not expect to take rating actions based on companies' need to make pension contributions.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Thought leadership on regulatory changes, economic trends, corporate success stories, and tactical solutions for treasurers, CFOs, risk managers, controllers, and other finance professionals
  • Informative weekly newsletter featuring news, analysis, real-world cas studies, and other critical content
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.