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Ms Stewart, who ran Swip’s £1.6bn Corporate Bond Plus and £181.8m European Corporate Bond funds, has been appointed global corporate bond manager at the firm.

She joined UBS's London-based global bond team last week, and will be responsible for bond selection ideas and trades across UBS’s global bond capabilities. She will report to Christian Jochum, head of global bonds, and focus on the global aggregate bond and global corporate bond strategies.

A spokesperson for UBS said Ms Stewart will take on portfolio management duties, which will be announced shortly

The manager, who has also worked at Gartmore Investment and Standard Life Investments, left Swip in November 2007. Her portfolios were taken over by head of credit Neil Murray.

Over three years until Ms Stewart’s departure, Swip’s Corporate Bond Plus fund returned 8.9 per cent, ouperforming the IMA UK Corporate Bond sector, which returned 7.5 per cent, according to Morningstar. It is ranked 25th out of 87 funds in the peer group.

But Kevin Tooze, managing director at Brentwood-based Equity Partners, said he would not be following Ms Stewart to UBS. "When a fund manager moves, you get two camps, those that stay with the manager and those that stay with the company," he said.

"I fall into the latter camp, because as an adviser, you have to justify moving out of funds and incurring costs, so you can’t do it willy-nilly."