OREANDA-NEWS. According to the BNY Mellon Institutional Scorecard, the funded status of typical U.S. corporate defined benefit (DB) plans fell by 2.1 percent in June, to 78.1 percent. The slide represents the lowest month-end funded status yet for U.S. corporate DB plans in 2016. Asset growth of 1.5 percent was not enough for plan sponsors to outpace rising liabilities—which increased by 4.0 percent in June, after the EU Referendum vote shook global markets.

Over the course of the month, corporate discount rates declined by 25 basis-points, and yielded 3.66 percent, which did little to curb the surge in liabilities. The U.S. 10-year and 30-year Treasuries also continued to trade at or near all-time lows with respect to yields. Year-to-date, for typical U.S. corporate DB plans, assets are up 6.5 percent, compared to a 13.85 percent increase in liabilities for plan sponsors. On a 12-month basis, liabilities have outpaced asset growth by over four-fold, increasing 16.96 percent versus 4.07 percent, respectively.

According to BNY Mellon estimates, the S&P 500 pension deficit is now estimated to have increased by $61 billion in June, to $495 billion.

On the public DB side, the typical plan fell short of its monthly return target of excess returns over a 7.5 percent annual return by 0.3 percent, even as investors saw an average return of 0.3 percent on assets. Typical public DB plans are now down on their year-to-date goal by four basis points, and remain 7.4 percent behind their 12 month target.

Endowments & foundations also missed their monthly target of real return in excess of inflation and 5 percent spending by 0.3 percent in June. Endowments & foundations are still up 0.8 percent against their year-to-date target, but remain 6.6 percent behind their 12 month return target, despite asset returns of 0.4 percent in June.

Of the asset classes the scorecard tracks, Long Duration Fixed Income and REITS were among the best performers in June, returning 4.9 percent and 4.8 percent respectively. Emerging Market Equities also had a good month, returning 4.0 percent to investors, despite International Developed Equities falling by 1.5 percent. Both U.S. Large and Small Cap equities remained mostly flat, returning 0.3 percent and (0.1) percent respectively.

"The U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union certainly brought some volatility to the market," said Andrew Wozniak, head of BNY Mellon Fiduciary Solutions. "Global equity markets have rebounded nicely since the initial sell-off following the vote, but the same cannot be said about fixed income markets, as yields have remained quite low. We're seeing that sponsors who have employed liability driven investing strategies continue to be insulated from these types of market shock events."