Investors pulled about $20bn from US mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the week ending on Wednesday, with reassurances from central bankers that tapering of the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying programme would be tied to economic recovery coming too late to stem outflows.

These were the highest weekly net outflows since August 2011, when investors were worried about the European debt crisis. Bond products were among the hardest hit, with taxable bond funds suffering net outflows of $8.6bn.