1. Most pension liabilities are incurred by large companies (with sales in excess of fifty million Euros) where, in 2001, they amounted to 12% of the total balance sheet, cf. Deutsche Bundesbank, Zur wirtschaftlichen Situation kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen in Deutschland;pension liabilities amounted to 8% of total assets according to an assessment by the German Federal Bank, cf. Deutsche Bundesbank,2003