Pension funds have had a torrid time of it in the past three years. The bear market has exposed the excessive risk that they have taken in holding high amounts of equities, where a dramatic slump has punched huge holes in once well-funded schemes.

Company sponsors have used the breathing space of the recent equity rally to restructure their pension portfolios and are focusing not on generating high returns from shares, a strategy that characterised the heady days of the 1990s bull market, but on matching their liabilities.