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Richard Philbin, chief investment officer at Architas Multi-Manager, said several new start-up portfolios planned for the fourth quarter would now be shelved until 2009.

He confirmed the division would also look to give retail investors access to its new multi-manager cash strategy, but it is initially making the offering available to institutional investors.

Oliver Russ, partner at Argonaut Capital Partners, said shorting bans in Italy and Greece would further delay the launch of its long/short European equity fund. In Italy, the shorting ban is due to last until the end of the year, when the government is due to review its position.

Mr Russ said regulation was becoming increasingly unpredictable.

"They change the rules on a daily basis," he said.

These are the latest in a wave of delays to hit the asset management industry following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September.

Senhouse Capital has put the launch of its Asian Focus fund on hold after the appearance of its European Focus fund in March. It had already received FSA approval and been running a 25-share paper portfolio in preparation.

Charles Scott Plummer, founder and client liaison director at Senhouse Capital, attributed the delay to "continuing market instability".

In October, WH Ireland also announced it was putting off an Income Plus unit trust proposition until the market settled down. It had already delayed the planned May launch despite the fact that, as a central part of its strategy, it used covered call options, which help mitigate the effect of falling markets.

Despite delays in launching its own products, Argonaut co-owner Resolution Asset Management on Friday still went ahead with its merger with Axial, and officially rebranded to Ignis Asset Management.

The selection process had lengthened due to the difficulty of finding a suitable name that had not already been copyrighted, rather than because of the market crisis, according to sales and marketing director Jonathan Polin.

The official go-ahead for the merger had also taken a while to obtain due to a long regulatory approval period for the fusion of parent companies Pearl Group and Resolution.

Resolution will adopt the new brand immediately and preserve its eight teams and four joint ventures as they stand.

Axial, which was originally owned by Pearl, will use its own brand at first and continue in its core specialism in asset liability matching.

Ignis said it would use Axial's expertise to develop further retail products to be launched and marketed under the Ignis Asset Management brand. It also confirmed its intention to expand further into international markets in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America.