The recovering stock market helped push the Thrift Savings Plan's overall fund balance to $246.3 billion in February — its highest level ever.

According to statistics released at the TSP board's monthly meeting, the February fund balance was almost 29 percent higher than it was exactly one year earlier, when the TSP hit its recession-era low of $191.5 billion.

Part of that peak was driven by the recovering C Fund, which was up 3.11 percent in February, and the S Fund, which was up 4.89 percent. The I Fund's international stocks were essentially flat in February.

Total participation in the TSP also hit a new high of nearly 4.3 million in February, which also contributes to the growing fund balance.

In another sign of recovery, the amount and number of outstanding loans decreased slightly in February, to almost 816,800 loans worth $7.2 billion. It was the first month since May 2008 that both the number and dollar amount of loans dropped in the same month.

In other news, Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, are likely to introduce a bill this week that would allow retiring TSP participants to deposit the cash value of their unused annual leave in their accounts.

The fact that the bill is bipartisan "means that we can get something done," said Tom Trabucco, external affairs director of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board.

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