The Pension Rights Center, a consumer organization that promotesretirement security, says that it will ask Congress to call a haltto companies' pension buyouts until policymakers can examinewhether such transactions pose risks to employees and retiredworkers.

The center's call for a moratorium follows Verizon'sannouncement earlier this week that it had transferred $7.5 billionof its pension obligations, covering about 41,000 retirees, toPrudential Financial, which will take over making the pensionpayments. A number of other companies, including General Motors andFord, have announced plans this year to move pension obligations,and risk, off their balance sheets by offering plan participantslump sums.

The center argues that insurance company annuities could be lesssecure than a company pension backed by the federal Pension BenefitGuarantee Corp., while lump sum payments mean participants mustcalculate how to make their money last.