‘I’d never seen anything like it’: how market turmoil sparked a pension fund selloff

  • 📰 GuardianAus
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 40 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 19%
  • Publisher: 98%

South Africa News News

South Africa South Africa Latest News,South Africa South Africa Headlines

Bank of England stepped in on Thursday to stabilise price of UK government bonds and avert a deeper crisis

Yet while headlines understandably focused on the immediate impact on consumers –and borrowing rates started to rise – a storm was brewing in a little-known corner of the pensions market that would eventually require the central bank’s massive intervention to quell it.

However, as asset prices slumped over the week – including UK government bonds, or gilts – those banks required more collateral to offset the pension funds’ liabilities, forcing the funds to dump assets and raise cash at short notice. And so the demands went down the chain: from banks needing collateral, to investment managers, who had to pass the message on to workplace pension fund clients they worked for, as gilt prices continued to plunge.

One of the notes circulating among fund managers was from Goldman Sachs’ credit sales team, which suggested that UK pension funds – which collectively hold about £1.8tn worth of assets – may be forced to stump up as much as £550bn worth of collateral to cover their contracts if gilt prices continued to plunge.

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 1. in ZA
 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

South Africa South Africa Latest News, South Africa South Africa Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

‘Dysfunction in this market’: Bank of England intervenes over ‘material risk’ to UK economyThe Bank of England has taken a dramatic step to calm a crisis in government bond markets, suspending its program to sell bonds and instead committing to buy them to counter “dysfunctional markets” So more QE at first sign of trouble. Will they ever learn?
Source: smh - 🏆 6. / 80 Read more »

‘Dysfunction in this market’: Bank of England intervenes over ‘material risk’ to UK economy“Were dysfunction in this market to continue or worsen, there would be a material risk to UK financial stability,” the central bank said. | Rob Harris
Source: theage - 🏆 8. / 77 Read more »