Platform sector growth defies market
The investment platform sector has shown no signs of market fatigue posting a 15.5 per cent annual growth to the end of March led by BT Financial Group who retain the lead in market share and Macquarie Group which had growth of more than 18 per cent.
In quarterly data released by Plan for Life the total platform, wrap and master trust sector increased its funds under management (FUM) by $89.1 billion to $662.8 billion for the year ending March 2015.
Around half of that growth ($42.5 billion) was created in the March quarter alone due to strong stock market activity, with some of this market growth having been reversed in the following quarter due to continued market volatility
Wrap accounts climbed 19.8 per cent over the past year to the end of March, reaching $264.4 billion in FUM or 39.9 per cent of the total wrap/platform/master trust market.
Inflows of $72 billion were offset by outflows of $51.4 billion with a net fund flow of $20.7 billion with AMP ($51.2 billion in FUM), Macquarie ($46.6 billion in FUM), BT ($44.3 billion in FUM) and National Australia / MLC ($29.6 billion in FUM) dominating the sector with 65 per cent of the total FUM.
Investment platforms outflows of $56 billion outstripped inflows of $55.9 billion for a total net funds flows of -$0.2 billion with National Australia / MLC ($76.5 billion in FUM), Commonwealth / Colonial ($75.3 billion in FUM) and AMP ($57.6 billion in FUM) continuing to lead market share.
The master trusts sector fared better with net flows up by $5 billion, or nearly 70 per cent, after inflows increased by 21.7 per cent to $18 billion and outflows were moderate at $13 billion with a total sector FUM of $95.3 billion, led by companies BT ($28.2 billion in FUM) and AMP ($27.4 billion in FUM) which control around 60 per cent of the total master trust sector.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
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