Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, said the big global issue in 2011 will be the increase in pension liabilities due to low interest rates and that the fund manager’s clients in the sector were already increasing their allocation to equities and alternatives.

On a conference call yesterday to discuss BlackRock's third quarter results, Fink said: "It will be a giant issue in the first quarter of 2011 as fiduciaries will have to either accept more volatility and allocate more to equities and alternatives to meet their liabilities or tell their constituents their liabilities will be lower."