The £290 billion fund manager Aviva Investors has cut around 20 staff from its fixed income, real estate and infrastructure teams, joining other high-profile investment houses – including BlackRock and Russell Investments – in trimming its ranks in the first quarter.

The redundancies, which affected portfolio managers, salespeople and those in other client-facing roles, were announced internally in March, according to one of those who lost their job. Staff were placed on gardening leave until March 31.