Law Firm Looks into Sec Lending at Northern Trust 401(k)

The Keller Rohrback class-action law firm announced Thursday that it is investigating the investment activities of Northern Trust Company (NTC) and Northern Trust Investments (NTI).

The investigation focuses on Northern Trust’s securities lending program in The 401(k) Savings and Profit Sharing Plan of The McGraw-Hill Companies, according to a news release. The program may have resulted in severe losses to the participants’ retirement savings in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

Keller Rohrback said its investigation focuses on allegations that NTC and NTI imprudently invested their cash collateral pools or collective trusts in the securities lending program in the plan in illiquid and leveraged assets. The collective funds in which the plan invested have not been performing comparatively with their benchmarks due to the alleged inappropriate securities lending activities at NTC and NTI, the law firm charged.

Keller Rohrback said it is also investigating the securities lending programs in the Standard & Poor’s Employee Retirement Account Plan For Represented Employees; The TRS 401(k) Retirement Plan; the Caterpillar Inc. Tax Deferred Savings Plan; and the Caterpillar 401(k) Plan.

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