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Pension agency may be in peril

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- The federal agency that protects pension plans could need billions in taxpayer dollars to bail it out amid the nation's economic downturn, officials said.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. was already running a deficit before the stock market meltdown and the global credit freeze, and a bevy of public companies are expected to file bankruptcy next year, the Detroit Free Press reported Sunday.

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"There's tremendous uncertainty as to what the PBGC might get hit with," said Frank Todisco, senior pension fellow for the American Academy of Actuaries in Washington.

Jeffrey Brown, finance professor at the University of Illinois, said up $100 billion or more of taxpayer money might be needed in the next decade or later to bail out the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

"It's hard to imagine how the PBGC could get out of this in the long run without a taxpayer bailout," he said.

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