Aberdeen Asset Management, the firm at the centre of a row over financial products which lost thousands of investors their life savings, has lost the director in charge of the schemes.

The UK-based company has announced that Chris Fishwick, who had responsibility for split capital investment trusts, had resigned because of the "frenzied media attention" surrounding the firm.

Split caps, as they are known, are complex products which spread investment across a range of different classes of share.

But the slump in stock markets around the world has exposed problems with split caps, many of which invested in one another, devastating the savings of investors and triggering an investigation by the Financial Services Authority.

Losing ground

In valuation terms, Aberdeen is already a shadow of its former self.

Its shares were worth more than 400 pence each at the beginning of this year, but are now trading at 46.5 pence following the feeding frenzy surrounding the split cap issue.

Late last month, investment bank Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (SSSB) described the firm's financial position as "somewhat precarious".

"We believe that there are significant risks facing Aberdeen, not least the risk that it breaches its banking covenants and incurs fines from the split capital trust investigation," SSSB said.

And its split cap assets in particular are worth less than half what they were six months ago, becalming the savings of thousands of investors who, regulators fear, may have been misled about the high risk attached to the product.

Three of Aberdeen's 19 split capital funds have called in receivers and a fourth is close to collapse.