S&P Raises CalSTRS Credit Outlook

Standard & Poor’s Rating Services this week announced an improved credit outlook for CalSTRS, upgrading the pension fund’s debt from “stable” to “positive”.

More from Reuters:

[The rating agency cited] a potential improvement to the pension fund’s funded ratio.

State legislation passed last year would substantially boost employer and employee retirement contributions to the pension fund, S&P reported.

S&P, which previously had an outlook of stable, affirmed the credit rating at AA-minus.

“We base the outlook revision on recent legislation that we believe should improve CalSTRS’ funded ratio over the next two years, assuming CalSTRS meets its actuarially projected investment returns,” S&P credit analyst David Hitchcock said in a statement.

[…]

S&P warned that if there are poor investment returns, or other changes in actuarial assumptions, “we could revise the outlook back to stable.”

CalSTRS manages $191 billion in pension assets for California’s educators.

Photo by Stephen Curtin via Flickr CC License