Pensions & Investments collected defined benefit pension fund information of companies in the S&P Europe 350 index. The defined benefit assets totaled around $1.5 trillion. The aggregate funding ratio of 81% was roughly the same as corporations in the U.S., but it trailed Canada's aggregate funding ratio of more than 90%. There were significant differences among countries, with Great Britain and the Netherlands having significantly better corporate funding ratios than other countries. Asset allocations of European companies were slightly overweight fixed income, but overall were similar to U.S. corporations.
All of the data and a detailed report will be available online later in the first quarter.