LDI Costs Go Up for Plan Sponsors as LIBOR Soars
While seen by some as a new-fangled name for an old concept ("keep your eye on the liability ball"), liability-driven investing ("LDI") is taking the defined benefit world by storm. Thought by some as a panacea for mismatched assets and liabilities, one type of LDI strategy entails the use of an interest rate swap (or a portfolio of swaps) whereby a plan sponsor receives a cash amount tied to a fixed rate (usually a specified treasury yield plus X basis points). Its obligation as a Floating Rate Payor is determined by the set level of a variable rate benchmark such as the six-month London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR"). Like anything else, there is no free lunch. Besides the collateral a plan sponsor must pledge to the counterparty (such as a major bank), yield curve changes are another factor. Moreover, as LIBOR rises, the plan sponsor must pay more when swap settlement occurs. (This assumes the absence of an interest rate cap that could otherwise create a ceiling as short-term rates climb.) This is exactly what has been happening of late.
According to the Wall Street Journal, ("Libor Pops Up," September 6, 2007), LIBOR has steadily risen over the last few weeks. Even more troubling, its parallel moves with the Fed Funds Rate have been shattered by credit market turmoil. "In normal market conditions, Libor tracks the Federal Funds rate pretty closely, and as recently as July the two were just 13 basis points, or hundredths of a percent, apart. As of Wednesday's close, that gap had grown to nearly 50 basis points, or half a percent. With exposure to the U.S. mortgage market cropping up in seemingly unlikely places, such as banks around Europe, banks that lend at Libor are expressing concern, through the rising rates, that borrowers who appear safe may prove to have something ugly hiding on their balance sheets."
While the British Bankers' Association suggests stability as of September 7, 2007 (due to central bank intervention), one wonders if this can be sustained. After Friday's disappointing jobs number in the U.S. and statements from money folks worldwide ("The credit crunch is only just beginning."), plan sponsors may find themselves exchanging one problem (pension gap) for another (rising short-term rates that drive up swap floating obligations).
Add market volatility and new regulatory mandates for disclosure to the mix and it's seat belt time for pension fiduciaries with financial decisions to make. Moreover, in "Why Libor Defies Gravity: Divergence of a Key Global Rate Points to Strain" (September 5, 2007), Wall Street Journal reporters Ian McDonald and Alistair MacDonald note that many other short-term rates are actually falling even as LIBOR and related financial instruments struggle. That's cold comfort if a corporate plan sponsor issues commercial paper or borrows via a short-term facility tied to LIBOR.
More to come about an increasingly important topic - LDI and pension financial management.
Editor's Note:
1. Click here to access LIBOR rates from the British Bankers' Association.
2. Click here to access H15 Selected Interest Rates from the Federal Reserve.
3. Click here to read derivative instrument FAQs, courtesy of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc.
