The decision by many pension fund trustees to manage their funds' ballooning liabilities with more sophisticated instruments has given the banks an ideal opportunity to tout their wares.

A trust set up to manage the fund in 2007 had 'effectively expired' and left no instructions on further payments.

During the late 1980s, the church commissioners, who manage the fund, were left with losses after borrowing heavily to invest in commercial property just before the sector crashed.

Fund directors and advisory firms that manage the funds hire each other preferentially based on past interactions.

He would control who managed the fund and how much they were paid.