LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Co-operative Bank pension scheme has completed a 1.2 billion pound ($1.47 billion) insurance deal for all its pension members with insurer Rothesay, Rothesay said in a statement on Tuesday.
In such bulk annuity deals, companies transfer the risk of their defined benefit, or final salary, pension schemes to an insurer.
Industry players predict a rise in bulk annuity deals after a recent crisis in the UK government bond market driven by a dash by pension funds for cash highlighted the risk of keeping pensions on company balance sheets.
($1 = 0.8139 pounds)
(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, Editing by Louise Heavens)
