Amundi posts record inflows as ETFs, fixed income lift 2026 start

The first quarter of 2026 was not an easy environment to gather assets. Equity markets fell roughly 3 per cent, the Indian rupee weakened materially, and the geopolitical backdrop remained unsettled. Against that, Amundi pulled in €32 billion in net inflows, the highest quarterly figure in more than four years, and pushed assets under management to a record €2,398 billion.

The result shows a business model deliberately diversifying across client segments, asset classes, and geographies, with a product range increasingly aligned to where demand is moving. Valérie Baudson, chief executive officer of Amundi, addressed the quarter directly:

“Amundi has made a very good start to the year, with record net inflows of +€32 billion in the quarter. The activity was sustained across all client segments, asset classes and geographies. This demonstrates the strength of our business model and our ability to support our clients in an uncertain environment.”

ETFs carried the quarter and are gaining market share

The clearest story in the numbers is the continued acceleration of Amundi’s ETF platform. ETFs and index solutions attracted €24 billion in net inflows for the quarter, of which €16 billion came from ETFs specifically.

Amundi’s ETF platform captured a 15 per cent share of Q1 2026 net inflows in European ETFs. That compares with 13 per cent for the whole of 2025 and 11 per cent in Q1 2025. The platform’s assets under management rose 22 per cent year on year to €543 billion. ETFs and ETCs alone were up 30 per cent to €354 billion.

The product innovation running alongside that growth is worth noting. Amundi launched a new active ETF in Euro Credit Investment Grade during the quarter, reflecting the firm’s view that active and passive are not binary choices in fixed income.

Two new clients were signed for the white-label ETF platform. The firm also announced the launch of a Bitcoin ETP built on European regulation and a 100 per cent European ecosystem, a signal that Amundi is watching where the next phase of ETF demand is forming.

Active management held its ground

Active management is often the more contested part of any asset manager’s results. Amundi’s active book attracted €7 billion in net inflows for the quarter, driven by multi-asset strategies and fixed income.

Securitisation contributed €1 billion of that total, reaching €8 billion in assets under management. The fixed income result is particularly relevant given the rate environment. Demand for shorter-duration, higher-quality income strategies has been consistent, and Amundi has positioned its active fixed income capability accordingly.

The firm was also named fund selectors’ preferred brand in France for the quarter, ranked first in France, fourth in Europe and in the top ten globally by the Fund Brand 50 survey. For a firm of Amundi’s scale, maintaining that kind of brand recognition in a competitive distribution landscape is not straightforward.

Private assets and retirement: the longer-term bets are taking shape

Private assets contributed €3 billion in net inflows for the quarter, anchored by a multi-management mandate with CCR, a French reinsurer, and first investments by CA Assurances into ICG strategies. The ICG partnership also reached a new operational milestone.

Final regulatory approvals were received for Amundi to appoint a non-executive director to the ICG board and increase its stake to 9.9 per cent, a process expected to be completed in Q3.

On retirement, Amundi gathered €5 billion across the quarter and won several mandates that will generate recurring flows going forward. These included the launch of PensioNEXT, a web-based pension investment advisory platform in Italy, and an index and ETF-based mandate for True Potential in the United Kingdom to serve as a core building block for retirement products.

Two institutional mandates were also won, for a large German company and a South Korean Chaebol. The mandate won in Q4 for Ireland’s new auto-enrolment regime recorded its first flows in Q1.

These are not headline-generating numbers in isolation, but they matter for a different reason. Retirement mandates are recurring, long-duration and typically sticky. They are the kind of flows that compound quietly over years rather than arriving and departing with market sentiment.

Revenue and profit growth that costs controlled

The financial performance matched the flow momentum. Adjusted net revenues reached €902 million, the highest quarterly figure on record, up 9.7 per cent year on year on a comparable basis. Net management fees grew 6 per cent. Performance fees jumped to €87 million from €23 million in Q1 2025. Amundi Technology revenues rose 21 per cent, driven by a 27 per cent increase in licence fees.

Baudson noted that the firm’s earnings per share reached levels close to their all-time highs. “The net income and earnings per share posted strong growth at +15%, at levels close to their all-time highs,” she said. That growth was supported by cost discipline, with the adjusted cost-income ratio holding at 50.4 per cent, and pre-tax income reaching €510 million, only the second time since Amundi’s listing that a single quarter has exceeded €500 million.

The geography of growth is broadening

One of the more instructive details in the results is where the flows came from. Northern Europe contributed €13 billion, with the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Sweden all contributing.

Asia added €7 billion, more than half of which came from direct distribution outside joint ventures, a sign that the firm’s local presence is generating business independently of its partnership structures. Digital distribution added €2 billion, supported by a new pan-European partnership with Bitpanda and its seven million users.

The quarter also confirmed Amundi’s continuing engagement in responsible investment. The firm contributed to the launch of one of the largest blended finance funds globally through the Global Green Bond Initiative. It also engaged with nearly 3,000 issuers in shareholder dialogue in 2025, a figure that has doubled over five years.

For advisers and allocators watching the asset management industry, Amundi’s Q1 result is a useful data point. In a quarter where markets fell and macro uncertainty persisted, a diversified business with scale in ETFs, active fixed income and retirement gathered more assets than at any point in the past four years. That is the argument for breadth made visible in the numbers.