Schroders' institutional business suffered £500m (€697m) of net outflows in the first quarter of this year as pension funds continued to shun balanced mandates in favour of specialist briefs.

In total the firm's assets under management fell 2.3% from £86.2bn to £84.2bn. Those numbers exclude assets lost in both the sale of Schroder Pensions to Alexander Forbes of South Africa, and its share of Schroder Hermes to its joint venture partner Hermes Pensions Management.