Britain's private sector pension schemes recorded a deficit of nearly £200 billion at the end of last year, as the global financial crisis took its toll on the value of pension funds, official data showed today.

The Office for National Statistics said the funding position of defined benefit pension schemes showed a deficit of £194.5 billion in December 2008. That compares with a surplus of £130.4 pounds in June 2007 before the onset of the credit crunch. "In 2008 falling equity markets and bond yields led to a worsening of the funding position," the ONS said.

The ONS reported marked changes in the types of investments made by pension funds.

In 2007, 61 percent of pension fund assets were in corporate securities, compared with over 70 percent for most of the 1990s.

Within that total, the proportion of UK corporate securities assets held by pension funds fell to 58 percent in 2007 from around 75 percent in the 1990s. In 2007, pensions invested 42 percent of funds in foreign corporate securities.