"State, county and municipal plan sponsors parlay their own creditworthiness when they issue Pension Obligation Bonds (POBs). If they can issue bonds with an interest ('coupon') rate that is lower than their respective retirement system's assumed rate of investment return, they can immediately lower their expected retirement costs by transferring POB proceeds into the retirement system and paying down their unfunded liabilities. And, if the retirement system's investments return more than the coupon rate, the plan sponsor will have lowered its actual retirement costs with arbitrage profits."  MORE >>