Two of the largest insurers in the pension risk transfer market, MetLifeand Prudential, have issued new reports onsponsors’ mounting interest in moving pension liabilities fromtheir books.

MetLife’s Pension Risk Transfer Poll, a new survey of about 230defined benefit plan sponsors, found that 45 percent of large plansponsors have taken proactive steps toward an eventual pension risktransfer.

Of those sponsors that report being most likely to takede-risking measures, almost three-quarters have taken preparatorysteps, according to the survey.

About half of the sponsors surveyed said increases in premiumsto the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. was the top catalyst fortransferring pension risk.

Today, PBGC published premium increases for plans inits single-employer insurance program for years beginning in2016.

The per-participant flat premium rate will be $64, up from $57in 2015. Next year’s increases were mandated by the BipartisanBudget Act of 2013; Congress, not PBGC, sets sponsors’ premiumrates, though some have said shifting that power to the agencyshould be explored, not the least of whom is new PBGC director ThomasReeder.

For context, the flat-rate premium was $49 in 2014, $35 in 2011,and $33 in 2008.

In the MetLife poll, 45 percent of sponsors said new mortalitytables issued by the Society of Actuaries was the leadcatalyst motivating de-risking plans.

The SOA recently adjusted the projections it released lastOctober, giving sponsors a slight reprieve fromprevious estimates of the cost of improving mortality.

And 34 percent of sponsors told MetLife their as their plansreached a predetermined funding status, they have given greaterconsideration to de-risking.

New research from Prudential Retirement, the unit of PrudentialFinancial, Inc. that oversees pension de-risking deals in the U.S.,shows that over $260 billion pension liabilities has beentransferred globally since 2007.

In the U.S., there have been $67 billion of pension risktransfer transactions since 2007, according to a new white paper onthe global market from Prudential.

Nearly $180 billion in transactions have been completed in theU.K., and more than $16 billion in activity has taken place inCanada since 2007.

The paper says that as leading global companies de-risk pensionassets, they gain a competitive advantage over those thatdon’t.

That reality is forcing more sponsors to consider de-riskingpension liabilities. Successfully de-risking pension plans can freeup cash for investments in a sponsor’s core business.

In the U.S., sales of pension buyouts totaled $3.8 billion inthe second quarter of 2015, a record for that period, according tothe LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute.

All told, there were 62 buyout deals lastquarter.

Record second quarter sales is notable because the sales cyclefor pension buyouts tends to be seasonal, with most activityoccurring in the fourth quarter, according to LIMRA.

Last year, pension buyouts yielded insurers $8.5 billion inrevenue.

A spokesperson from LIMRA explained that the trade group doesnot get access to specific insurers’ total revenue from pensionde-risking deals.