Mercer has increased its offshore presence in the retirement incomes market with the group positioning itself for new product rollouts in Asia.
Mercer Asia Pacific outsourcing business head David Anderson said the group is exploring a number of options including corporate pension plans in China.
“At the moment we’re reviewing a number of options,” Anderson said.
“The most attractive options are flexible benefits outsourcing in Asia, which we already have market position in. The second option we’re looking at the enterprise annuities market in China.”
The first part of Mercer’s plan has been to consolidate its three divisions in Australia, New Zealand and Asia under one umbrella. Anderson will head the new division.
“What we’re looking to do is be efficient across those time zones. So we’re exporting all the good and relevant components from our platform in Australia to markets in Asia,” he said.
Anderson said the main driver behind the move is the rapid growth in the Asian market.
“There’s big growth. Asia Pacific is growing faster than any other region,” he said.
“What’s interesting about Asia is that a lot of markets have modelled their legislative framework on retirement savings on the Australian system. Now it’s their own version of the Australian system but the fundamentals are well known by us and they’re familiar to us.”
