The Brexit result has forced some of the world’s largest pension schemes to issue emergency guidance to retirees and has warned that some members could see cuts to their benefits.

Funds across the world have expressed their fears that Britain’s departure from the EU will hurt global growth expectations and an already troubled pension funding crisis, according to The Financial Times.

Europe’s largest pension fund ABP, which manages $350bn of assets on behalf of 2.8 million government and education employees in the Netherlands said meeting future pension obligations is now in “the danger zone”.

“Although ABP will only decide at the end of the year, the prospect of a benefit cut for members is indeed more likely than it was before the vote,” a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for PFZW, the second-largest Dutch pension fund, said the Brexit result had a “negative impact” on the scheme’s coverage ratio, partly because its investments in stocks “took a hit”.

“The fallout of the referendum on financial markets does not help and could make a cut [to benefits] even more likely” adding that all of the scheme’s members will be affected if deficits continue to move further into the red.

Furthermore, Dutch Pension Federation director Gerard Riemen said “we tell our members that there is no hope that funding ratios will go up very quickly. We know that pension benefits [are likely to] be cut next year.”

Elsewhere, the Irish Association of Pension Funds held an emergency meeting last week to discuss the operational impact of the Brexit decision on Irish schemes.

Most evidently, however, British pensions are expected to confront the biggest challenges. A number of UK schemes are already facing inflated payments to final salary pensioners who have been promised pension payouts following their retirement.

Ultimately, there are concerns that the pension funds experiencing the biggest decline in the value of their assets will need emergency cash injections from sponsors in order to meet promises. Nonetheless this may not be possible as a result of increased financial strain in all areas.

Willis Towers consultant David Robbins said “markets are adjusting to a new reality, [companies and pension scheme trustees] have got to have more difficult discussions than they’re expecting.”

Concerns have also been voiced that there will be a significant increase in the number of schemes falling into the Pension Protection Fund.

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