ISSUE132 20 September 2017
Pension deal duo settle in Guernsey Two separate longevity risk transfer transactions, one involving the British Airways (BA) Airways Pensions Scheme (APS) and one involving Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) UK Pension Fund Trustee Limited, have been completed in Guernsey.
contracts with Partner Re and Canada Life taking on the risk.
The BA APS scheme used a captive to insure £1.6 billion of pension liabilities against longevity risk. The captive is owned by the trustees, but will be operated and managed independently.
A BA pension fund newsletter explained: “Favourable pricing has allowed us to insure another £1.6 billion of the scheme’s pension liabilities against longevity risk.”
Under this new setup, the trustees have transferred the longevity risk to the captive company, which has agreed reinsurance
P re v i o u s l y, t h e s c h e m e t o o k a s i m i l a r a p p ro a c h w h e n i t i n s u re d $ 2 . 6 b i l l i o n of liabilities.
It stated: “Protecting some of the scheme’s liabilities in this way does not change how your APS pension is calculated, paid or increased. BA Pensions will remain your
point of contact for any help you may need and will continue to pay and administer pensions in the way that it always has.” In the MMC UK deal, a longevity hedge has been completed, covering around £3.4 billion of liabilities for around 7,500 pension members of the MMC UK Pension Fund. The longevity risk was transferred using a captive approach to the reinsurance market, through Guernsey-incorporated cells with Canada Life Reinsurance and The Prudential Insurance Company America (PICA) reinsuring an equal share of the risk. Continued on p2