Rebound Continues in Third Quarter for Plans in U.S. Master Trust Universe, According to BNY Mellon Asset Servicing

BOSTON, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The median plan in the BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe posted an 11.30% return for the third quarter of 2009, the second straight quarter of positive returns. On a year-to-date basis, the median plan is up 15.7% and one-year returns are back in the black, just above 1.0%.

With a market value of more than $1 trillion and an average plan size of $1.72 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 633 corporate, foundation, endowment, public, Taft-Hartley and health care plans.

"Asset owners benefited for the second straight quarter as all segments of the BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe posted positive returns for the period ending September 30, 2009," said Greg Stewart, managing director and regional product manager of BNY Mellon Asset Servicing. "Corporate and public plans experienced the greatest gains, posting results of over 12% and 11%, respectively."

Highlights

• All plans in the universe posted positive results for the three-month period ending September 30, 2009.
• 21% of the plans matched or outperformed the custom policy return of 13.49% in the third quarter, down from the 40% of plans that outperformed in the second quarter.
• Corporate pensions were the top performing plan type for the third quarter with a 12.08% median return, followed by public, foundations, Taft-Hartley, endowments, and health care plans.
• Non-U.S. equities led all asset classes for the quarter with a median return of 19.47%, outperforming the MSCI All Country World ex US Index return of 14.90%. U.S. equities returned 16.37%, compared to the Russell 3000 Index return of 16.31%. Non-U.S. fixed income posted a median return of 8.36%, ahead of the Citigroup Non-US Dollar World Government Bond Index return of 7.33%. U.S. fixed income posted a result of 6.06%, versus the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index return of 3.74%.
  

"The rally within the equity markets continued, driven largely by non-U.S. equity performance - up more than 32% year-to-date. On average, plan allocations to non-U.S. equities rose to 17% from 15% in the prior quarter. Although not quite as strong, U.S. equities were up 22% on a year-to-date basis," said Stewart.

The average asset allocation in the BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe for the third quarter was: U.S. equity 34%, U.S. fixed income 27%, non-U.S. equity 17%, non-U.S. fixed income 1%, alternative investments 2%, real estate 8%, cash 1%, and other (oil, gas, etc.) 10%.

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 $22.1 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $966 billion in assets under management, services $11.9 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.6 trillion per day. Additional information is available at bnymellon.com.

    BNY Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe Median Plan Returns
    Period Ending September 30, 2009

                          Number of     3Q      One-    Five-     Ten-
    Universe             Participants  2009     Year    Years     Years
    -------------------------------------------------------------------
    Master Trust
     Total Fund              633      11.30     1.16     4.49      4.58
        Corporate Plans      232      12.08     2.08     4.73      4.60
        Foundations           90      11.04    -1.11     4.63      4.91
        Endowments            89       9.87    -1.99     5.20      4.59
        Public Plans         106      11.66     1.04     4.38      4.69
        Taft-Hartley Plans    63      10.38     0.24     2.96      3.96
        Health Care Plans     25       9.10     1.24     4.28      4.49
    Universe Custom
     Composite Benchmark              13.49    -1.82     2.84      2.08

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

Citigroup Non-US Dollar World Government Bond Index: © Citigroup Global Markets Inc., 2009. All rights 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.