"It's a lot like a DC plan, even more so than a typical cash balance (CB) plan. Participants have an account balance, but like all cash balance plans it's a notional account balance. Benefits are expressed as account balances, pay credits, which are analogous to employer contributions in DC plan, are deposited periodically into accounts, and interest credits, which are analogous to investment returns, are credited. What distinguishes it from a traditionally-designed cash balance plan is that the interest credits are based on real market rates of return rather than bond yields."