A BUSINESS group has called for changes to a controversial new accounting standard which is leading to firms closing final salary pension schemes.

The CBI wants amendments to be made to the standard known as FRS17, under which firms have to include pension liabilities on balance sheets and cannot smooth out short-term fluctuations in equities.

Director-general Digby Jones said the rule values pension assets in a misleading way and urged the ASB to let firms base the valuation of these assets on the average market value over a period of three years.