The platform industry suffered a severe blow in the December quarter of 2008 after it saw retail funds under administration (RFUA) decline by almost $45 billion or 12.4 per cent to $317.5 billion.

In the September quarter of 2008 RFUA amounted to $362.5 billion, according to figures from Morningstar's Market Share Report.

On an annual basis, RFUA fell by more than $100 billion or 24.4 per cent.

"Although over the year to December 2008 RFUA fell a whopping $102.2 billion, the three-year trend remained positive at $22.5 billion," Morningstar said in the report.

Investment wraps were the administrators which were hardest hit. Their RFUA fell from $55.2 billion to $47.1 billion, a decline of 14.7 per cent. None of the investment wrap managers were able to produce an increase in funds.

"BT and Macquarie continued to be the main players in investment wraps, accounting for 56.6 per cent of the wrap market," Morningstar said. "This has been largely unchanged for the last couple of years."

On an annual basis investment master funds saw the biggest decline, with RFUA down 32.5 per cent or $18.5 billion to $38,484 billion.

Perpetual was the only manager to post an increase in funds, helped by the addition of the new Perpetual WealthFocus. It saw RFUA grow by $306 million or 7.9 per cent to $4.2 billion.

But this product also carried funds forward from the existing Perpetual Investor Choice products, which were previously not available through a platform.