The funded status of the 100 largest corporate defined benefit pension plans dropped by $39 billion during April 2012, as measured by the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index (PFI). The deficit increased to $267 billion from $228 billion at the end of March, and the funded ratio fell from 85.0% to 82.9%.
April’s funded status decrease, the first of 2012, was due primarily to a decrease in the corporate bond interest rates that are the benchmarks used to value pension liabilities.