The continued push by retail investors into corporate bonds in March – one of the most important months of the year for UK asset managers – helped boost total fund flows back to pre-crisis levels, signifying that investors may be starting to reallocate assets that they pulled out of the markets last year.

According to the Investment Management Association, total net retail flows into investment funds totalled £1.7bn (€1.9bn). This is the highest level of fund flows since before the credit crunch in April 2007, when net flows reached £1.8bn. A year ago, net flows in March totalled just £379m.