Pensions tracking mortgage industry

COLUMBUS (AP) — Count Ohio’s five public employee pension funds among those watching the volatile mortgage investment industry.

The funds that provide retirement pay and health care for tens of thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters and state workers have more than a half billion dollars invested in subprime mortgages, or home and property loans to people seen as credit risks.

That’s less than 1 percent of the funds’ combined $184 billion in investments. Much more — about 10 percent — has been put into more secure mortgages, many of them guaranteed by the federal government.

Wall Street is nervous about whether subprime mortgage-related losses are causing banks and other lenders to tighten up credit and whether the market for mortgage-backed securities has dried up.

Those concerns have taken stocks on a turbulent ride: Since the Dow Jones industrial average hit a record above 14,000 in July, it has swung up and down violently as investors try to gauge how tough the lending climate is getting.