The Bank of England has issued a warning to pension fund managers before it removes emergency support for the bond market this week.
Governor Andrew Bailey told those managing pensions "you've got three days" to finish balancing their books.
Meanwhile pensions chiefs have urged that the bank risks creating further market chaos by ending its bond-buying package on Friday.
"We have announced that we will be out by the end of this week. We think the rebalancing must be done," Mr Bailey said at an event organised by the Institute of International Finance in Washington on Tuesday.
"And my message to the funds involved and all the firms involved managing those funds: 'You've got three days left now. You've got to get this done'."
However, this message appeared to be contradicted on Wednesday by a report in the Financial Times, which claimed officials have signalled privately that the emergency bond-buying programme could indeed be extended.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, an industry body, urged the Bank of England to extend the bond-buying programme until October 31 "and possibly beyond."
Mr Bailey had previously stressed that the programme was part of the bank's financial stability operations, not a monetary policy tool, and had to be temporary.
The British central bank expanded its bond-buying on Tuesday to include index-linked gilts, which are Government bonds with interest payments in line with inflation.
It is the second time Threadneedle Street had been forced to intervene, after it upped the daily limit of its bond-buying programme to £10billion, an increase from £5billion originally.
The Bank has been buying up long-dated gilts - a type of government bond that make up a large proportion of pension pots - to help calm markets.
The pound plunged on Tuesday night after the Bank of England's three-day warning to pension funds
It has been supporting the UK's bond market in recent weeks after markets were spooked by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget.
That's despite calls from one pension industry body for the support to be continued until at least the end of the month "and possibly beyond".
The pound fell against the dollar on Tuesday evening, from 1.1178 to 1.0969. Sterling was trading at 1.0995 at the time of writing this morning.
It came after the pound rose as high as 1.1180 on Tuesday but slumped sharply after the Governor's warning to pensions funds.
