Based on the information submitted by these trustees, pension plans continued to face challenges posed by limited new opportunities and the prevailing low interest rate environment. As a result, many pension plans have been forced to hold large amounts of cash in their investment portfolios.
At the end of June 2012, pension plans held over $ billion or 16 percent of their funds under management in cash and near cash instruments. Nevertheless, private pension plan assets rose to $ billion, a year-on-year increase of nearly 8 percent to June 2012, and represented nearly 13.5 percent of total assets of the financial system.