Over 22 per cent of the top 80 fund management firms surveyed issued no warning when providing a link to an external, unauthorised site and 74 per cent of companies choose to play it safe with no external links at all. Ecompliance also found that just 4 per cent of firms warn users when they were leaving an authorised site, despite recent concerns about hypertext links taking investors to unauthorised sites with one click of the mouse.

Ken Douglas, director of Ecompliance, said: 'What is needed from FSA is a set of clear, standardised guidelines for the internet to remove confusion over what constitutes a compliant website. Only when we have such guidelines will financial companies be able to exploit the potential of e-commerce to the full.'

Ecompliance praised the Internet sites of the following investment houses: Jupiter Asset Management, LeggMason Investors, Newton Fund Managers, AIB Govette and Sarasin Investment Management. They were applauded for having issued privacy statements and risk warnings, and having clear access to terms and conditions.

The FSA internet strategy group is understood to be considering these issues as it seeks to offer clearer guidelines and updated procedures in the New Year.