The pensions industry has reacted with deepening alarm to the Bank of England's second £75bn round of quantitative easing, announced this lunchtime. The UK's National Association of Pension Funds is now writing to the authorities, demanding to know what can be done to protect their finances, which are being badly hurt by the emergency stimulus measures.

This afternoon Ros Altmann, the director-general of Saga Group and strident defender of the UK's retired population, was first out of the gates to describe QE2 as a "Titanic disaster". As Financial News warned last week, her view will be shared by anyone responsible for running a pension scheme.