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Jacquie Kerr, head of mutual fund investments, observed a large number of UK platforms had yet to accept Sicavs.

"I'm not clear what the issues are," she said. "As we launch our sterling share class, hopefully they will give us some more information."

She argued although some platforms, such as Transact, had a liberal attitude towards offshore funds, investors in continental Europe and the UK generally preferred their own markets, making it more difficult to launch one range to suit both.

But Graham Bentley, investment marketing director at Skandia UK, said the division's Skandia Selestia platform, which has the largest share of the UK market, had no problem admitting products from outside the country. He estimated up to 5 per cent of the vehicles on the platform were domiciled overseas.

"We don't have an issue with offshore funds as long as they are FSA-recognised and have a sterling share class," he said.

He explained portfolios also had to be dealt, traded and valued daily. "We'd prefer the valuation points were all similar, but it's not a dealbreaker. It would be if it was a long way off internationally, if it was four in the afternoon as opposed to one o'clock."

Tony Stenning, managing director of UK retail at BlackRock, warned this had proved a stumbling block even for European-domiciled vehicles, however.

"The difference you're going to get is valuation time. In the UK, we value at noon. That's not necessarily the case in Luxembourg and Dublin, where for various reasons we value at 4pm, when the US is open."

Last month, managers sounded off on the lack of EU-wide harmonisation for fund distribution. Robin Geffen, founder and managing director of Neptune Investment Management, branded it "a fundamental failure on the part of the regulators".

At the time, Mark Tyndall, chief executive of Artemis Investment Management, said: "You don't have different funds in the US getting sold in different states. We are in a halfway land that is rather unsatisfactory."

Keith Wilson, head of UK mutual fund sales at Fortis Investments, described the "halfway" status of Sicavs in the UK as "a handicap".

Following the merger with ABN Amro Asset Management, Fortis Investments will domicile all of its funds in a single Sicav umbrella.

Ms Kerr could not comment on hopes for harmonisation under the potential Ucits IV legislation. She explained previous Ucits rules had been designed to introduce the concept but had not taken it to its furthest extent. "I suppose I might be more jaded," she said.