Canadian defined-benefit pension plans collectively suffered their largest losses since the 2008 financial crisis in 2022, recording a median decline in assets of 10.3 per cent despite a partial recovery in the final months of the year, according to a survey from Royal Bank of Canada RY-T.
Pension assets suffered heavy losses in the first two quarters of 2022 before starting to recover in the back half of the year. In the final quarter, pension assets returned 3.8 per cent, as measured by the RBC Investor and Treasury Services All Plan Universe, which serves as a benchmark for performance.
Pension plan investors were battered by unusually volatile markets driven by high inflation and rapidly rising interest rates, as both stocks and bonds returned losses, instead of helping offset each other as has often been the case in past market downturns. And although plans earned positive returns to finish the year, they are facing many of the same pressures in 2023.
“In the next few months, plan sponsors will need to be attentive to risk factors such as the economic impact of the central banks’ actions, ongoing geopolitical tensions and ongoing efforts to contain the COVID virus outbreak in certain emerging markets,” Niki Zaphiratos, managing director for asset owners at RBC I&TS, said in a news release.
Canadian pension plans’ bond portfolios had median losses of 16.8 per cent in 2022 – the largest annual decline in more than 30 years – and also trailed the benchmark FTSE Canada Bond Index. The losses were driven by the drastic action central banks took to tame inflation by raising interest rates, with longer-duration bonds that are most sensitive to inflation accounting for some of the largest declines.
Yet for pension plans, there was a silver lining to rapid interest-rate increases, which caused future liabilities to fall. As a result, more pension plans finished 2022 in surplus, meaning their assets were greater than their liabilities. And higher yields from fixed-income securities could also give pension plan investment managers more options to reduce risk-taking in their portfolios over the coming year.
Stocks also suffered, rather than acting as a counterweight to falling bond prices. Foreign equities returned 9.7 per cent in the fourth quarter, but closed the year down 11.3 per cent, according to RBC I&TS. And Canadian equities returned 6.3 per cent in the final quarter of the year, bringing their annual loss to a comparatively modest 3.6 per cent. In general, value stocks performed better than higher-risk growth stocks in the quarter.
The last time pension assets declined so sharply was in 2008, when Canadian defined-benefit pension assets posted a median loss of 15.9 per cent.
Defined-benefit pension plans pay fixed benefits for as long as a beneficiary lives based on their contributions and years of service.
James Bradshaw