SCOTLAND'S universities could create an effective replacement if they were forced to leave their present UK-wide pension scheme, according to a leading firm of actuarial experts.

Pension consultants Xafinity said Scots universities may have to quit the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) if Scotland became independent.

However, a briefing by the firm said creating a separate Scottish scheme would incur only relatively modest additional costs, and concluded: "A Scottish USS would have sufficient scale to manage assets and liabilities in as effective a way as they have been in the past."

Last month, Labour's pensions spokesman Gregg McClymont warned university pensions would be at risk if Scotland became independent.

Under EU rules, "cross-border" occupational pension schemes must be fully funded, with sufficient assets to cover their liabilities. The USS - which has 36,000 members in Scotland - has a shortfall of £9.8 billion.

But Xafinity said claims of a crisis were unnecessarily alarmist, adding that workarounds to the problem included creating a Scottish USS or allowing individual universities to put assets into other existing schemes.

The USS could also meet EU rules by plugging its £9.8bn funding gap, it said.

First Minister Alex Salmond again sought to reassure defined benefit pension scheme members yesterday, insisting it was nonsense to present the issue as a "great immovable problem".