Pension Insurance Corp. and Hannover Re S.E. have assumed a block transfer of £1.6 billion ($2.69 billion) of pension liabilities from the defined benefit pension plan of Total U.K. Ltd., the London-based arm of Paris-based oil company Total S.A.

London-based PIC announced Monday that it had completed a buy-in deal with the trustees of the Total U.K. Pension Plan.

In a buy-in deal, a regulated insurance company assumes responsibility for the pension obligations of a company. In turn, the employer transfers pension plan assets to the insurer, which are used to pay retirees their promised benefits.

For an insurer, the appeal of such an arrangement is that the pension plan assets it receives and investment income it earns on the assets may exceed the value of the liabilities it guarantees.

For employers, the appeal is that they have shifted to an insurer the risks inherent with a defined benefit plan, such as having to kick in additional money if investment income is less than expected or retirees live longer than anticipated.

The deal is the second largest buy-in deal completed in the United Kingdom to date, PIC said in a statement, after the £3.6 billion ($6.05 billion) buy-in deal with the ICI Pension Fund, the defined benefit pension plan of Imperial Chemical Industries P.L.C., announced in March.

The ICI plan has assets of about £2.5 billion and total liabilities of £2.6 billion.

“This was a complex transaction in which we sought to bring certainty to a large portion of our liabilities,” Iain McCombie, chairman of the trustees of the ICI plan, said in a statement.

“We are delighted to have been able to help the trustees achieve their aims of removing risk from the plan,” said David Collinson, co-head of business origination at PIC in the statement.

“This is a landmark transaction for OIC and is significant for the bulk annuity sector, pushing pension liabilities insured already this year past £5 billion ($8.40 billion),” he added.

Pension liabilities of £1.6 billion assumed in cooperation with PIC had “for the most part been transferred to Hannover Re,” the reinsurer announced Tuesday.

Hannover Re said that under the terms of the deal it assumes the biometric risk of the plan, not the investment risk.

In a statement, Hannover Re said it would generate total income of about €1.9 billion ($2.59 billion) from the transaction.

“We expect to see further attractive opportunities in longevity business because it is likely that companies will increasingly look for ways of limiting their pension liabilities,” Ulrich Wallin, CEO of Hannover Re, said in the statement.