Thirty-six senior executives in FTSE 100 companies have built up pension funds worth a total of £177 million, according to a new survey.

The total pension pot for executive directors in each of Britain's 100 biggest companies could be worth as much as £2 billion, the author of the report suggested. The generosity of boardroom pension packages was making it increasingly difficult for senior managers to "look colleagues in the eye", at a time when many employees were being required to switch from final-salary pension schemes to less secure ones, said a leading pensions expert.