If the Bank of England can do it, so can you. The UK monetary authority's purchase of £2bn (€2.1bn) worth of gilts today, part of its attempt to rejuvenate the economy through what it calls quantitative easing, represents a significant relaxation of the Bank's attempts to control inflation. It also represents a short-term disaster for pension schemes that the pensions regulator should respond to by relaxing the way it applies its own rules.

With many funding strategies measuring liabilities using a gilts-based interest rate, the fall in gilt yields that accompanies this quantitative easing means many schemes have now fallen into deficit. The proportion of UK schemes in deficit has now passed 90%, according to figures published by the Pension Protection Fund, the government-mandated lifeboat for the schemes of bankrupt companies.