Positive Fourth Quarter and Year-to-Date Returns in 2009 for U.S. Master Trust Universe, According to BNY Mellon Asset Servicing

Full year returns up almost 20%, compared to 25% drop in 2008; 99% of plans in the black for Q4

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Feb 16, 2010, 08:35 ET

BOSTON, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The median plan in the BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe posted a 3.30% return for the fourth quarter of 2009, the third straight quarter of positive returns. Year-to-date returns are up almost 20%, a significant contrast to 2008 when many investors were in the red by almost 25%.

With a market value of $1.16 trillion and an average plan size of $1.66 billion, the BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe is a fund-level tracking service that can be used to make peer comparisons of both performance and asset allocation results. The Universe consists of 699 corporate, foundation, endowment, public, Taft-Hartley and health care plans.

"Endowments and Foundations were the top performers in the fourth quarter, returning 3.70% and 3.60% respectively, as alternative strategies started to rebound," said Greg Stewart, managing director and regional product manager of BNY Mellon Asset Servicing. "However, for the full calendar year, Corporate Pensions had the strongest returns with a median result of 21.00%."

Highlights

99% of the plans in the universe posted positive results for the three-month period ending December 31, 2009. For the twelve months ending December 31, 2009, a similar pattern is evident with just a single plan posting a return below zero.

Nearly 15% of the plans matched or outperformed the custom policy return of 4.18% in the fourth quarter. For the twelve-month period, 29% of the plans matched or outperformed the custom policy return of 22.67%.

Endowments were the top performing plan type for the fourth quarter with a 3.70% median return, followed by foundations, public, corporate pensions, Taft-Hartley and health care plans.

U.S. equities led all asset classes for the quarter with a median return of 5.87%, compared to the Russell 3000 Index return of 5.90%. Non-U.S. equities returned 3.43%, underperforming the MSCI All Country World ex US Index return of 4.13%. U.S. fixed income posted a result of 0.92%, versus the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index return of 0.20%. Non-U.S. fixed income posted a median return of 1.15%, ahead of the Citigroup Non-US Dollar World Government Bond Index return of -2.15%.

"2009 was the year of equities with U.S. stocks returning 29% and non-U.S. equities exceeding 37% for the twelve months ending December 31, aided by the U.S. dollar's weakening against many currencies. Fixed income returns were also robust for the year with Corporate debt especially strong," said Stewart.

The average asset allocation in the BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe for the fourth quarter was: U.S. equity 34%, U.S. fixed income 26%, non-U.S. equity 17%, non-U.S. fixed income 2%, alternative investments 9%, real estate 2%, cash 1%, and other (oil, gas, etc.) 9%.

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing offers clients worldwide a broad spectrum of specialized asset servicing capabilities, including custody and fund services, securities lending, performance and analytics, and execution services.

BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation [NYSE: BK]. BNY Mellon is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 34 countries and serving more than 100 markets. The company is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, providing superior asset management and wealth management, asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and treasury services through a worldwide client focused team. It has $22.3 trillion in assets under custody and administration, $1.1 trillion in assets under management, services $12.0 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.6 trillion per day. Additional information is available at www.bnymellon.com.

    
    
    BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe Median Plan Returns
    Period Ending December 31, 2009
    
                                   Number of       4Q      One-    Five-  Ten-
    Universe                       Participants    2009    Year    Years Years
    -----------------------------  ------------    ----    ------  ----- -----
    Master Trust Total Fund                 699    3.30    19.47   3.66   3.79
        Corporate Plans                     257    3.26    21.00   3.80   3.73
        Foundations                          89    3.60    20.07   3.78   3.95
        Endowments                           91    3.70    17.52   4.24   4.09
        Public Plans                        121    3.43    19.66   3.55   3.89
        Taft-Hartley Plans                   66    2.72    17.39   2.59   3.45
        Health Care Plans                    17    2.44    17.22   3.93     NA
    Universe Custom Composite
     Benchmark                                     4.18    22.67   2.00   1.19

Russell 3000 Index: Russell Investment Group is the owner of the trademarks, service marks, and copyrights related to its indexes

Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index: © Barclays Bank PLC 2009. This data is provided by Barclays Bank PLC all rights are reserved

MSCI All Country World ex US Index: Morgan Stanley Capital International, MSCI, ACWI, EAFE, EMF and all other index service marks referred to in the MSCI US equity index series materials are the exclusive property of MSCI and its affiliates. Copyright © 2009 Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc. All rights reserved.

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