Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the UK's largest institutional fund manager, has experienced a more than doubling of the amount of funds under management that are measured against tailored benchmarks, compared with three years ago.

In 1997, 80% of Merrill's pooled fund mandates were measured against the Caps median. That proportion has now dwindled to 53%. The picture is the same for its segregated mandates between £30m (&euro47.1m) and £100m, and similar for mandates that are larger still.