Wholesale and retail FUM drops $180b during June quarter

Global stock performance has led to retail and wholesale managed funds falling by over $183 billion during the June quarter, according to data from Plan For Life.

The actuary and research firm stated in an update this week both sectors fell around 7.5 per cent over the June quarter with wholesale FUM at $1.26 trillion and retail FUM at $1 trillion.

The analysis from Plan For Life stated asset prices remained under pressure due to global interest rate rises to “sustainable levels” to control inflation.

“However so far they have yet to be successful (not really surprising as real interest rates are still negative) so further rises and reciprocal falls in asset values are inevitable,” it said.

All four market leaders reported decreases, with Insignia reporting a 6.8 per cent decrease, followed by BT (-7.6 per cent), Commonwealth Bank/Colonial First State (-9.7 per cent) and AMP (-8.9 per cent). As sector leader, Insignia holds $195 billion in funds under management.

Mid-sized players HUB24 saw a 20 per cent increase and Netwealth similarly had a double-digit jump (17.5 per cent).

The largest wholesale fund manager drops were AMP which lost 67.5 per cent for the quarter but this was largely due to the sale of its institutional business.

Other major drops were from Pendal (15 per cent) which has since been acquired by Perpetual, Victorian Funds Management (5.9 per cent), Vanguard (5.5 per cent) and First Sentier (5 per cent).

State Street is the largest wholesale manger with $300 billion in FUM, followed by Vanguard ($100 billion), Insignia Financial ($84 billion) and Challenger ($76 billion).

This week, embattled fund manager Magellan saw its FUM drop to a new low of under $51 billion after a peak of $117 billion at the end of last year. The firm’s retail FUM has dipped below $20 billion while wholesale FUM is just over $31 billion.