Hargreaves Lansdown, the online fund supermarket, has written to its asset management clients to encourage them to absorb external research costs, piling pressure on those that are yet to decide their approach ahead of new EU rules coming into force.

Lee Gardhouse, chief investment officer at the FTSE 100 broker, has written to fund managers ahead of the update to Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, which will split research and transaction costs when it comes into effect from January 3 next year.