US fund houses fear it could take as long as seven years before their assets under management recover to pre-crisis highs, according to a new report from consultancy McKinsey, which warned asset managers must "fundamentally transform" business models to protect their long-term profitability.

In McKinsey's latest annual survey of the US fund management industry, nearly two-thirds of respondents described their sector as "battered but resilient" and likened it to the downturn of the 1970s, when it took between four and seven years for managers to fully recover assets. Only one in 10 predicted a more rapid recovery this time around.