Pension Insurance Corporation plc (“PIC”), a specialist insurer of defined benefit pension funds, has signed a further buy-in with the Trustee of the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund (“MNOPF”), covering £400 million of liabilities, representing the benefits of close to 2,000 MNOPF pensioners. This buy-in builds on a previous £1.6 billion transaction completed in February 2020, in which PIC secured the pensions of around 14,000 members by converting a longevity swap held between MNOPF and Pacific Life Re.
The MNOPF is an industry-wide pension scheme established in 1937 to allow shipping companies to provide retirement and death benefits for their officers.
MNOPF Chair, Rory Murphy, said: “This buy-in is a further key stage in our long de-risking journey. This buy-in helps to provide greater certainty to members about the security of their benefits and we are delighted to have completed it with PIC, who we know well from our existing transaction.”
Uzma Nazir, Head of Origination Structuring at PIC, said: “We worked closely with the Trustee over several months to actively monitor market conditions and ensure that we were able to transact quickly once market conditions were favourable. We were proud to complete the original buy-in with the MNOPF and are delighted that we have been selected as their partner once again.”
Nadine Reid, Director at WTW, who led the advice to the Trustee, said: “We were very pleased to help the Trustee to secure another buy-in for members of the MNOPF, extending their partnership with PIC. The MNOPF Trustee is dynamic and open to innovation, which has enabled them to secure another important de-risking step by seizing a transaction opportunity when it arose.”
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