The UK's Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund (MNOPF) has completed a second buy-in deal with Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), covering £400m of liabilities across nearly 2,000 pensioners.

As reported by our sister publication, Pensions Age, the £400m deal builds on the previous £1.6bn transaction that was 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.

A total of £2bn of the MNOPF’s liabilities are now insured by PIC.

“This buy-in is a further key stage in our long de-risking journey,” commented MNOPF chair, Rory Murphy.

“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.”

PIC head of origination structuring, Uzma Nazir, added: “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.”

The scheme trustee was advised by WTW, with WTW director, Nadine Reid, who led the advice, commenting: “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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