In a survey of 30 managers that offer their expertise to Irish investors, Irish Life topped the table as the best place to have entrusted your money over the past three years. Eagle Star, Canada Life and Oppenheim Investment Managers also performed above average.

The results are a shot in the arm for an industry under pressure from international fund management giants, which are grabbing a bigger share of Irish pension assets, including all of the 15.5bn sitting in the National Pension Reserve Fund.

According to the survey, by pension consultants Mercer, people who asked Irish Life to manage their cash three years ago would now have doubled their money. Eagle Star also performed well, ranking seventh in the table of 30. Canada Life came in eighth, followed by Oppenheim.

The survey looked at global equities only, excluding the Irish shares as well as property and bonds that form a big chunk of most pension funds.

It shows that BIAM's woes are increasing, with the worst performance of any asset manager over the last three years. It also propped up the table over the past 12 months.

The widening performance gap means that a pension fund that picked table-topper Irish Life instead of BIAM three years ago would now have twice as much money in the bank.

BIAM's poor performance has resulted in a haemorrhage of international clients, especially in America, and funds under management have slipped from 57.5bn at March 2004 to 44bn by last September.

The business, once a major contributor to Bank of Ireland profits, has also suffered from the defection of star managers to an Australian start-up. It is seeking a successor for Chris Reilly, its long-time chief investment officer, who is due to retire.

Senior sources say BIAM is now in danger of losing clients at home. They claim its real performance has been artificially masked by the fact that it owns no stock in Athlone drugs company Elan, which caused a tailspin in many pension funds when the share price collapsed in 2002.

"BIAM's Irish clients are in for a shock, " said one source. "Its performance already comes in last over three years and one year and, if you run the numbers forward, it will also be last on a five-year horizon by the middle of next year. By then the Elan effect will have worked its way out of the numbers."