{"id":16590,"date":"2011-10-06T22:19:48","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T02:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prefblog.com\/?p=16590"},"modified":"2011-10-06T22:19:48","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T02:19:48","slug":"october-6-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prefblog.com\/?p=16590","title":{"rendered":"October 6, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

More worries<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Canadian pension funds saw their funding problems grow dramatically in the third quarter as bond yields tumbled while stock markets went into decline.<\/p>\n

Pension consulting firm Mercer said its pension health index slipped to 60 per cent funding at the end of September from 71 per cent at the end of June and 75 per cent at the end of March. The index measures the change in funded status of a typical pension plan with average asset allocations.
…<\/b>
[Mercer’s pension guy] Mr. [Scott] Clausen said the decrease in bond yields contributed to about 8 percentage points of the drop in the pension health index in the third quarter, while declining investment returns accounted for the other 3 percentage point decline.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s a big round of quantitative easing in the UK<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has lost faith in European governments\u2019 ability to resolve the region\u2019s debt crisis.<\/p>\n

The central bank yesterday announced its biggest stimulus since the depths of the recession, citing \u201cvulnerabilities\u201d related to the euro-area turmoil. King said the move, the first loosening of U.K. monetary policy since 2009, was a response to what may be the worst financial crisis ever.
…<\/b>
King\u2019s refusal to wait for European governments signals determination to shield the U.K. from a crisis that threatens to tip Britain\u2019s biggest trading partner into recession. It also shows concern that failure to protect bank funding markets risks recreating conditions that led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. three years ago.<\/p>\n

The U.K. central bank, which left its benchmark interest rate at a record-low 0.5 percent, raised the ceiling for so- called quantitative easing to 275 billion pounds ($421 billion) from 200 billion pounds. That\u2019s the biggest expansion since the first round of stimulus in March 2009. Only 11 of 32 economists in a Bloomberg News survey predicted the increase.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

DBRS confirmed BBD at Pfd-4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

S&P changed the outlook on TD from positive to stable<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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