Barclays on Wednesday announced plans to close its final salary pension scheme to nearly 18,000 existing members, a contentious move that could encourage other big employers to follow suit. In a  letter to staff, John Varley, group chief executive, said the current pension scheme had become “untenable” after its £200m surplus ballooned into a £2.2bn deficit over one year. Trade union officials said the move was an “utterly alarming” breach of promises to bank staff.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 5:11 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with barclays. Edit this entry.