Register, et al. v. PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., et al.

Case Updates

The Third Circuit agreed with NCLC and affirmed the lower court’s ruling in favor of the defendants. The court of appeals held that the amount that PNC put into each employee’s retirement account was the same regardless of age, and therefore was not discriminatory.

In this case, the lower court ruled in favor of the defendants, finding that PNC’s conversion of a “defined benefit” pension plan to a “cash balance” plan did not violate the anti-backloading or age discrimination provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974. In its brief, NCLC pointed out that the lower court got it right: employers such as PNC who convert to cash balance pension plans do so for valid, nondiscriminatory reasons.