The government agency that backstops private sector pensions saw its deficit swell by $1 billion, to $23 billion for the most recent fiscal year.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said it has $79.5 billion in combined assets to cover a total of $102.5 billion in obligations.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) has published a proposed regulation which, if adopted, may force companies to increase the funding of their pension plan in excess of legal requirements, warns law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

The regulation impacts Section 4062(e) of ERISA, which requires a company that sponsors a single-employer defined benefit pension plan to notify the PBGC within 60 days if it closes down operations at a facility in any location and, as a result, more than 20 percent of the company's employees participating in the pension plan are fired.