Pensions are still struggling to make enough gains to counter growing liabilities.

A survey by Mercer Investment Consultants says that a positive performance so far this year by Irish pension fund managers has done "little to help ailing fund levels".

In the 12 months to the end of October, the FTSE World index rose just 4.2 per cent, slipping sharply from a 12-month performance of 10.7 per cent at the end of September.

On the other side of the equation, bond yields are falling, effectively increasing the pressure on the outgoings of pension funds. The 10-year yield on euro zone government bonds has fallen to 4.45 per cent at the end of last month, down from an already low 4.9 per cent at the start of the year.

Equity funds as a group had underperformed the index in the year to the end of September, recording average gains of 10.2 per cent. They also underperformed the more broadly-based Irish managed pension funds, which returned 11.4 per cent over the same period.

The strongest equity fund performer in the year to the end of the third-quarter was Canada Life/Setanta with gains of 15.1 per cent. At the other end of the scale, KBC Asset Management grew just 4.9 per cent.

Over the longer five-year period, MFS Investment Management and Newton Investment Management are the top performers, with annual gains of 1.5 and 1 per cent respectively at a time when the average return to equity funds remains negative - an average loss of 1.2 per cent per annum.

Only three funds (UBS Global Asset Management is the other) recorded positive returns over the five-year period and only two (Newton and JP Morgan Fleming's manager of manager fund) were in the black over three years when the average fund lost 2.8 per cent each year.

Over 10 years, Bank of Ireland Asset Management is the second-best performing equity fund manager at 10.4 per cent per annum behind Newton at 11.3 per cent and ahead of MFS (10.2 per cent) compared to an average return of 8.8 per cent and FTSE World Index return of 7.1 per cent.

KBC props up the table on all periods up to three years. In its absence over the longer term, Citigroup is the greatest underperformer.