The UK’s biggest pension fund, the £36.7bn BT Pension Scheme, has set out a plan to invest up to £1.8bn in emerging-markets debt during the next few years, as allocations to the developing world increasingly become a mainstream part of pension funds’ portfolios.

BT's trustees, led by chairman Paul Spencer, disclosed the plan in their recently published annual report to members, saying an allocation of 5% of scheme assets would be built over the "long term".