The chief executive of Brewin Dolphin has said the firm does not plan to make use of government staff retention schemes, as assets under management at the wealth manager took a tumble in March.

David Nicol said in a trading update this morning that Brewin Dolphin had performed well in the latter part of 2019 (its fiscal Q1) and into 2020.

“Not surprisingly, the rapid spread of Covid-19 and the unprecedented reaction of the global markets, has negatively impacted the value of our clients' funds and consequently our second quarter total income,” he said.

“We have a strong balance sheet with good cash gener...