Benefits April 17, 2007

TSP To Address System Transaction Capacity

April 17, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) board members warned that they must be prepared to deal with a sharp boost in transaction volume in the retirement savings program for federal workers triggered by a major market plunge, Govexec.com reported.
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The board was responding to the large number of participants (10%) with investments in the 401(k)-style plan’s International (I) Fund who made changes to their accounts following the stock plunge at the end of February.

According to Govexec.com, the system that processes the transactions normally operates on about three-fifths of its capacity, but if the market sees a sudden steep drop, the system should be turned up to full capacity so that it can handle four to five times the volume of transactions.

“We have to make sure we are building ourselves up structurally for increased volume and increased participants,” TSP Board Chairman Andrew Saul said at a meeting on Monday. “God forbid that we have a major world event…we really have to plan for this.”

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