“It’ll be better than the Church of Scotland conference. They never go to the bars or for dinner: they just head straight home.” That was the assessment of one Edinburgh cab driver before last week’s National Association of Pension Funds investment conference. With 800 delegates this year – down from 900 last year – he might have been overly optimistic in his hopes for extra business.

Having 100 fewer delegates was "better than the FTSE", joked Arno Kitts, chairman of the investment committee of the NAPF. But his opening reference to the market falls that have slashed pensions' funding ratios over the past year was soon overshadowed by sharp exchanges of opinion over the role of pension schemes in the financial crisis.