Mega-super fund outflows would have sunk many smaller industry funds
The amount of funds which have flowed out of AustralianSuper is larger than the funds under management of many of Australia’s corporate superannuation funds and some smaller industry funds.
In short, just one fund has seen sufficient funds flow out of its coffers from early release as would have started a reasonably-sized new fund.
The latest data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has revealed that AustralianSuper has seen outflows of over $4.6 billion which is close to or more than the total funds under management of small electricity industry fund, NESS and lawyer-focused fund, Legalsuper.
The APRA data show that $4,659,669,367 has flowed out of AustralianSuper as a result of early release requests with the vast bulk of that money being taken as part of the first round of the Government’s initiative $3,212,767,202, with a further $1,446,902,165 having been taken in the second round.
There is now conjecture that the Government will use next Tuesday’s Budget to open up a third round starting in January, next year and the early release scheme has acted as an accelerator of further superannuation fund mergers.
But AustralianSuper has not been alone with hospitality focused fund HostPlus closing in on $3 billion in total outflows alongside big retail industry fund REST which has broken through the $3 billion barrier. Queensland-based Sunsuper has also cracked $3 billion with HESTA closing in on $2 billion.
Superannuation fund executives said that these numbers needed to be viewed in the context of the early release scheme being ongoing with a further surge in outflows expected in the run-up to Christmas as people sought to cover their costs.
According to APRA, the 10 funds with the highest number of applications received from the ATO have made 2.9 million payments worth a total of $21.9 billion.
It said the average payment from these funds was $7,608.
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