Challenger sees 10% decline in FUM

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

21 April 2026

Challenger Limited’s third quarter update to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today has exemplified the degree to which global volatility is taking its toll on funds management.

Amid an otherwise healthy update with annuities and life sale up, Challenger reported that funds management funds under management (FUM) was down 10% for the quarter to $104.5 billion.

Challenger managing director and chief executive, Nick Hamilton noted the decline in the context of it occurring in “a period of global volatility where institutional allocators have continued to reduce exposure to active equity management”.

The company’s more specific commentary on the funds management business said FUM was $104.5 billion, representing a decrease of $11.7 billion for the quarter driven by net outflows of $8 billion.

It noted that $3.4 billion of negative investment market movements had been driven by the war in Iran and client distributions of $0.3 billion.

The Challenger update said Fidante’s FUM was $86.2 billion and creased by $11.8 billion or 12% for the quarter and included net outflows of $8.4 billion, $3.2 billion of which were due to negative market movements.

It said net outflows were primarily driven by institutional equity strategies ($7.3 billion).

The company noted that it had tightened its FY26 normalised basic earnings per share (EPS) guidance to a range of between 66 and 70 cents per share.