Colonial First State and Challenger Financial Services have conducted rounds of redundancies within days of each other in the past fortnight.

Colonial First State made 20 of its 2100 positions redundant early last week, with retail distribution understood to have borne the brunt after a 2008 in which, according to new Plan For Life numbers, the wealth manager suffered a drop in FUA of 24.3 per cent to $63.7 billion. That was just worse than the industry average of -23.3 per cent, however it suffered outflows of 40.7 per cent over the year, a much bigger loss than the average (which was also -23.3 per cent).

A Colonial spokesperson said some of those affected would be offered redeployment opportunities within the Commonwealth Bank group.

Meanwhile, Challenger Financial Services made a round of staff cuts a few days before Colonial, following on from one late last year.

A spokesperson said the latest round reflected the impact of last year’s decision to merge management of Challenger’s three listed investment businesses with its 40-odd unlisted investment products. The rationalisation has affected roles in operations, IT, marketing and one role involved in preparing performance reports for institutional clients.