UK insurer Legal & General Group plc (L&G) has revealed that its Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) division completed eight transactions over the past month, securing a combined £261 million of pensioners’ benefits during uncertain times. The eight transactions cover UK and U.S. pension schemes and varied in size from as low as £2.2 million to as high as £80 million. L&G notes that on March 27th alone, three separate PRT transactions were signed.

Despite the impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, L&G explains that the PRT market in the UK and the U.S. continues to transact, with some of the better prepared schemes making the most of good pricing opportunities. L&G, like many businesses around the world is now operating remotely, and the insurer states that its PRT team has established practices to enable remote pricing, negotiations, and signing of PRT deals.

As the pandemic continues and accelerates in many parts of the world, L&G says that its ability to work in an agile manner puts it a strong position. Chris DeMarco, Managing Director of UK Pension Risk Transfer, Legal & General Retirement Institutional (LGRI), commented: “Amidst a challenging environment and great uncertainty, today’s announcement demonstrates that despite the significant disruption we are still able to provide security to pension scheme members through risk transfer transactions.

“Recent history demonstrates that periods of market disruption may provide opportunities for schemes to de-risk their schemes. The sharp widening of credit spreads, combined with the strong appreciation in the value of gilts many schemes are holding, has improved buy-in and buyout pricing. “Legal & General have in place the team and resources to continue servicing our clients remotely as well as meeting demand for further risk transfer transactions. We are pleased that we were able to help these eight new schemes to safeguard their members’ benefits.”

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