Rising disposable income allied with falling interest rates has engineered a boom for the investments market. Investors have been pouring vast sums into investment products in an attempt to better the derisory returns available through mainstream financial institutions' basic products in the current low interest rate environment.

A survey of the Irish retail investment market by the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM) discovered a 40 per cent increase in funds invested in 1998 on the previous year, with such funds now accounting for about 20 per cent of the total savings market.

And it is not just private investors who are looking for the golden egg - the IAIM itself predicts its members will continue to profit this year as punters pull their money out of low interest rate deposit accounts.