Just months after exceeding $4 trillion in assets, Australia’s super industry continues to grow at pace.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) latest quarterly superannuation statistics revealed that superannuation assets totalled $4.2 trillion as at December – a 2.1 per cent rise over the quarter.
Of this, $2.9 trillion was in APRA-regulated funds.
Now, industry funds manage an impressive $1.49 trillion in assets, with retail funds trailing at $806.5 billion, public sector funds at $573.7 billion, and corporate funds at $46.5 billion.
“Superannuation returns were strong over the last 12 months, with an 11.1 per cent return in the year to December 2024,” the prudential regulator said.
The five-year annualised rate of return was 6 per cent.
Total contributions over the three months were $49.1 billion, reaching a total of $198 billion in the year to December, and marking a 14.8 per cent rise over the previous corresponding period.
“Employer contributions were $37.3 billion for the quarter and $129.9 billion for the year ending December 2024, 10.8 per cent higher compared to the previous year,” APRA revealed. “The annual growth included the effect of an increase in the super guarantee contribution rate from 11 per cent to 11.5 per cent starting July 2024.”
Moreover, member contributions were $11.8 billion for the quarter and $54.1 billion for the year – a 26.7 per cent surge.
According to APRA, this was driven by personal contributions.
Benefit payments came to a total of $124.4 billion for the year ending December, a 12 per cent increase, attributable to a 17.5 per cent increase in pension payments and a 7.8 per cent increase in lump sum payments.
Meanwhile, total benefit payments for the quarter comprised $18.5 billion of lump sum benefit payments and $14.4 billion of pension payments.
Net contribution flows for the period increased by 17.5 per cent to $68.2 billion.
Last month, APRA also revealed that super industry assets have seen an almost 40 per cent increase in the last five fiscal years.
In its latest annual bulletin for the financial year 2024, APRA revealed that, over the five years from June 2019 to June 2024, total industry assets have seen an increase of 38.3 per cent, although this number rose to 41.4 per cent for solely APRA-regulated entities.
Over the same period, the number of APRA-regulated funds declined from 1,792 to 1,105, with the number of funds with more than six members declining from 171 to 93.
