The £350bn investment arm of UK-listed insurer Aviva plans to absorb the cost of external research from 2018, leaving just a handful of big-name fund managers to decide how they will do business under new EU trading rules.

Aviva Investors will cover the cost of broker research following the introduction of the revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive on January 3. The new rules will separate trading and research costs and force fund managers to overhaul how they treat analysis provided from third parties.