Companies that trade on the London Stock Exchange's FTSE 100 no longer offer a final salary pension scheme to new hires, according to research by Towers Watson.

Some 13 percent of FTSE 100 employers only ever had a defined contribution pension arrangement, 60 percent of FTSE 100 employers have defined contribution for new entrants only and their defined benefit plan is closed to new entrants but open to future accrual, and 27 percent of FTSE 100 employers have defined contribution plans for all employees and their defined benefit plan is closed to all future accruals, including existing employees, the study found.

For the FTSE 350 employers, 97 percent said their main scheme for new hires is a defined contribution pension scheme.

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Towers Watson's 2014 FTSE 350 defined contribution pension scheme survey looked at how the United Kingdom's leading companies are dealing with the latest developments in pensions and what impact they may have on employers of all sizes in the near future.

The survey found that 59 percent of FTSE 250 employers now only offer a defined contribution benefit compared to just 40 percent in the FTSE 100.

In the last 10 years, the use of matching contributions has nearly doubled, with more than three-quarters of the FTSE 100 now using matching contributions, the survey found. The average annual management charge in the FTSE 100 decreased from 0.38 percent in 2010 to 0.37 percent in 2014.

The number of defined benefit hard closures increased from 4 percent in 2010 to 25 percent in 2014, according to the latest survey.

For the defined contribution market, only 13 percent of schemes made annual contributions more than £20 million, but by 2014, that number had increased to 34 percent.

In 2006, only 27 percent of FTSE 100 schemes had more than £50 million in assets. Today that figure stands at 61 percent, Towers Watson found.

There also has been a increase in the number of defined contribution plans that offer diversified growth funds. Ten years ago, few diversified growth funds were even in existence. Today, 71 percent of DC schemes offer a diversified growth fund to members.

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