The BT Group Pension Scheme – the UK’s largest private sector retirement fund – had only enough money at the end of 2008 to pay about 57 per cent of promised benefits if the telecommunications company were to become insolvent, and said it intended to pare back sharply its future investments in equities in the future.

The shift in strategy is significant for a scheme that has consistently taken the view held that it is investing for the longer term and therefore, in spite of the fact that the scheme is mostly comprised of pensioners or deferred members, equity investments remain appropriate investments.