Shell, the oil group that runs the last final-salary pension scheme in the FTSE 100 that is open to new staff, has decided to stop offering it from 2013. The move comes as new European rules threaten companies with higher bills for running such schemes.

In a statement on its pensions website, which was first reported by the trade publication ai-CIO.com, Shell told its staff that it was in the early stages of designing a new 'defined-contribution' scheme, a type of plan that offers no guaranteed pensions at retirement.