The UK's largest accountancy body, the ICAEW, has launched a consultation with its employees to axe its final salary pension scheme as a result of a £19.3m deficit. Those signed up to the scheme received letters last week detailing the insitute's plans. 'We have come to the conclusion that this fund has become too costly to stay in its current form,' a spokesman from the ICAEW told Accountancy. 'The volatility of the market makes it difficult to determine the amount of funding needed'. Those affected will be members who joined the scheme before 2000, the year it was closed to new members, and will be offered membership of a defined contributions scheme from 31 May 2010 if the consultations lead to the scheme being scrapped. The spokesman stressed that the Institute is 'no different to any other business in the UK We are against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, people are living longer than they used to'. 'We are committed to those who have already received benefits and providing a pension scheme for our staff,' he added. The number of staff affected was not disclosed.