A senior investment consultant at IBM Consulting, previously PwC Consulting, has predicted a dearth of M&A activity in the fund management industry and an increase in alliances between firms.

Asked in an interview on Cantos, the online corporate communications channel, whether he thought financial institutions would now start to dispose of their fund management operations, Paul Traynor, a director at IBM Consulting, said: "I would probably expect to see more alliances, marketing alliances along the lines of Barclays and Legal & General rather than the insurers disposing of their asset managers."