Investors have long been overshadowed by the might of their sellside banking rivals, but Douglas Ferrans says the fresh emphasis on market efficiency and consumer protection created by the financial crisis gives the buyside an opportunity to gain more traction, which they have to grasp.

Ferrans, who spent 33 years in finance after starting out at Scottish Amicable in 1977 and became chairman of the Investment Management Association, the trade body for the £3 trillion asset management industry, in January this year, said: "As an industry, we do not make the high basis-point profits that banks do - who in turn can throw resource at lobbying.