Ten superannuation funds have done most of the heavy lifting in terms of the Government’s hardship superannuation early release scheme, but new trends appear to be arising with respect to the volume of demands on those funds in the second tranche.
Data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has revealed that Australian Super continues to face heavy second tranche demand with 109,974 members seeking to make a second withdrawal alongside continuing heavy demand on HostPlus (67,085) and HESTA (36,031), and National Australia Bank’s NULIS (30,420), Sunsuper (91,277), REST (71,044).
However, this compares to AMP Superannuation which, according to the APRA data and in what be a data collection anomaly, appeared to meet no repeat applications and a number of other retail funds which appeared to experience a lower rate of second round demand than some of their industry funds peers.
Colonial First State has so far registered 19,619 second round applications while BT Funds Management recorded 39,488.
Superannuation fund executives have told Money Management that while there was a surge in second round applications in the first week of July, this appeared to have flattened out.
They noted, however, the likelihood of a third surge tied to the Government’s changes to JobKeeper and JobSeeker arrangements.
The research house has offered a silver lining after super fund returns saw the end of a five-month streak last month.
A survey of almost 6,000 fund members has identified weakening retirement confidence, particularly among those under 55 years of age, signalling an opportunity for super funds to better engage with members on their retirement journey.
The funds have confirmed the signing of a successor fund transfer deed, moving closer to creating a new $29 billion entity.
A number of measures, including super on Paid Parental Leave, funding to recover unpaid super, and frameworks to encourage investment in the energy transition, have been welcomed by the superannuation industry.
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