Weaker pension funds face a squeeze from rising wage inflation and lower investment returns, which may undermine their ability to increase payments to members, according to the managing director of Hibernian Investment Managers, Mr Pramit Ghose.

Such increases may have to be forsaken to preserve solvency, he warned. Those funds most at risk would have relatively high numbers of pensioners and/or older members, and operate defined-benefit schemes in which they try to increase payments each year to offset inflation.