Addressing delegates at the annual TUC pension trustee conference, Brendan Barber said: 'With Britain now in the grip of the worst recession since the 1930s, we've got to do everything in our power to safeguard pension schemes. 'Unless we act now, there is a very real danger that ordinary people could pay a severe price in retirement for the monumental profligacy of City bankers.

'But there is a nagging suspicion that some firms - including many that took contribution holidays in the 1990s - are using the current recession as a convenient excuse to adopt a slash and burn approach to occupational pensions.

'Adopting precisely the same short-term, profit-maximising mentality that gave us the financial crash in the first place.

'It means millions of the pensioners of the future facing poverty - their well-being suffering and all at an extra cost to the taxpayer.

This is what strikes me about many such policy choices - the short-term here and now, protecting my budget and passing the buck for longer term costs onto some ambiguous 'other' in the future to pick up is hugely damaging and costly in the long run.

'As pension funds own a significant tranche of UK plc - including shares in some of our leading financial institutions - they are in a unique position to influence the behaviour of the firms they invest in.

'Responsible, engaged investment can enable risks to be managed more effectively, it can push companies to behave more responsible towards workers, communities and the environment, and, perhaps most pertinently, it can deliver long-term returns for investors.

'So the case for a fundamental change of direction - for a new age of engaged investment - is perhaps more compelling now than ever before. 'I believe we have a genuine window of opportunity to promote more active, responsible investment behaviour - and in doing so to help create a new kind of financial capitalism.'