The Conservative Party received nearly £5.3 million in donations in the last quarter of last year - more than Labour and the Liberal Democrats put together.
Latest figures published by democracy watchdog the Electoral Commission showed Labour attracted £2.64 million and Sir Menzies Campbell's party £2.32 million.
Parties also paid off - or converted to donations - £316,700 of £60.8 million of borrowing they were forced to disclose last year in the wake of loans-for-peerages allegations. New borrowing in the period amounted to £36,100.
Among Labour's donations were three £250,000 contributions from financiers which have already sparked anger from trade unions. Nigel Doughty, Sir Ronald Cohen and Jonathan Aisbitt each gave the sum, the Commission's figures show.
Mr Doughty, 49, is chairman of Doughty Hanson, a leading UK-based private equity firm. He has a personal fortune estimated at £120 million.
Mr Aisbitt is thought to be worth £98 million - much of which he made in the flotation of merchant bank Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner. He is now reportedly a director at hedge fund Man Group plc.
Sir Ronald, meanwhile, is a leading supporter of Chancellor Gordon Brown who started the private equity vehicle Apax with three friends in the 1970s. He is believed to be worth £260 million. Labour described the three as "long-standing supporters of and regular donors to the Labour Party".
The Conservatives' coffers were boosted by a £500,000 donation in October from a little-known unincorporated association called the Scottish Business Groups Focus On Scotland. This is the largest gift yet from the group, which previously gave £200,000 in August 2006 and £225,000 in 2004. It comes ahead of this May's vital elections to the Scottish Parliament.
Business donors have made increasing use in recent years of unincorporated associations to direct gifts to the Tories. Groups such as Focus On Scotland or the Midlands Industrial Council - which has given £1.3 million since 2003 - afford donors a measure of anonymity, as the names of members providing the funds do not have to be published by the Electoral Commission. Another £500,000 gift came from an individual named Michael Farmer, who is not recorded by the Commission as having previously given money to the Conservatives.
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Other large Tory donors included Australian-born hedge fund boss Michael Hintze, who gave £203,000, art dealers Ivor Braka Ltd, which gave £100,000, and Middlesex businessman Stanley Fink, who donated £65,000. A large chunk of the Liberal Democrats' gifts came from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd, which gave a total of £685,034 in three separate donations. Other major gifts to Sir Menzies Campbell's party came from regular donor Paul Marshall, who gave £125,000, and nursing home provider Alpha Health Care Ltd, which gave £100,000.
