The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its Annual Superannuation Bulletin, setting out information on the performance of the superannuation industry in the past year.

 

Key findings of the Bulletin include:

 

  • Total superannuation assets increased by 11.5 per cent during the year to 30 June 2011 to $1.34 trillion. Of this total, $810.6 billion are held by APRA-regulated superannuation entities and $407.6 billion are held by self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), which are regulated by the ATO. The remaining $117.0 billion
    comprises exempt public sector superannuation schemes ($80.9 billion) and the balance of life office statutory funds ($36.1 billion).
  • During the June 2011 quarter, an industry fund merged with a public sector fund. The merger resulted in an increase in public sector funds' assets, members and net rollovers, and a decline in industry funds' assets, members and net rollovers.
  • Public sector funds' assets increased by 21.9 per cent during the year to June 2011. Small funds, which include SMSFs, single-member approved deposit funds and small APRA funds' increased by 11.5 per cent, industry funds by 10.8 per cent, retail funds by 8.9 per cent and corporate funds by 3.7 per cent.
  • As at 30 June 2011, small funds held the largest proportion of superannuation assets, accounting for 31 per cent of total assets. Retail funds held 28 per cent of total assets, industry funds held 19 per cent, public sector funds held 16 per cent and corporate funds held 4 per cent of total assets.
  • The number of member accounts decreased by 4.6 per cent during the year to 31.3 million.

APRA has also released two reports providing performance data for individual superannuation funds, covering the eight-year period from 2004 to 2011. The reports cover APRA-regulated funds,  with the exception of small APRA funds, single-member approved deposit funds and pooled superannuation trusts. They are:

  1. Superannuation fund-level rates of return, which contains performance data on the 200 largest funds by asset size as annualised five-year and eight-year average returns, as well as for each of the eight years. These 200 largest funds cover 98 per cent of the members and 99 per cent of the assets of APRA-regulated (excluding small) funds, as well as eligible rollover funds (ERFs).
  2. Superannuation fund-level profiles and financial performance, which contains detailed data for all funds each year from 2004 to 2011. The detailed data allow observers to analyse APRA-regulated funds across a range of measures (subject to privacy considerations).

Copies of the superannuation fund-level data publications are available on APRA’s website at: www.apra.gov.au/Super/Publications/Pages/superannuation-fund-level-publications.aspx