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The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has revealed the degree to which the global financial crisis undermined superannuation assets last financial year.
The regulator’s Annual Superannuation Bulletin revealed that total superannuation assets fell by $66.4 billion or 5.8 per cent to stand at just $1.07 trillion as at June 30, 2009.
Not mentioned in the APRA data, but validated by more recent research, is the fact that most of the losses incurred through the worst of the downturn were recovered through the first half of the current financial year.
The APRA data revealed that the only sector of the superannuation industry to experience a growth in assets were small funds with fewer than five members, which grew by 0.5 per cent to $334.3 billion.
This compared with the industry funds where assets fell by 4.7 per cent to $191.8 billion, corporate funds which fell by 9.5 per cent to $54 billion, retail funds which fell by 9.6 per cent to $304.7 billion and public sector funds which fell by 10.3 per cent to $153 billion.
The APRA bulletin said that for the 12-month period, contributions to all superannuation funds totalled $112.2 billion, with employers contributing $71.1 billion and members $39.9 billion.
It said contributions to large funds totalled $76.9 billion of which retail funds received 36.8 per cent, industry funds 31.1 per cent, public sector funds 26.5 per cent and corporate funds 5.7 per cent.
