Contributions to FTSE 100 pensions up 30%

Three out of four FTSE100 companies reporting at the end of 2005 claimed to have paid more into their pension fund than in the previous year, maintaining the trend set in recent years, with a handful of companies making what, Watson Wyatt describes as, large special contributions. The consulting firm says at the end of last year, pension deficits were broadly unchanged from the previous year due to reducing bond yields offsetting the impact of favourable equity markets. However more recently, favourable investment markets have helped to knock nearly a third off the pension fund deficits ...