Speaking at the Actuaries Institute Financial Services Forum in Sydney yesterday, Ms Rubinsztein said there is scope for reducing the number of funds available in the marketplace and that the superannuation industry should look to the banking system.
“One way to draw an analogy is to look at the banking system, which has, let’s say, 20 licences and is a bigger market, and we have a smaller superannuation system with 300 funds or 130 MySuper funds,” she said. “I do think there is an argument for having fewer funds in Australia.”
However, fellow panellist and AustralianSuper group executive, membership, Paul Schroder argued that the rapid consolidation of funds is already happening.
“The top 12 funds by size now attract 80 per cent of inflows in workplace super, which is going to lead to consolidation at a rapid rate,” Mr Schroder said.
“So a reduction in the number of funds won’t actually require an act of parliament or APRA or ASIC doing anything,” he said, adding that a better way of reducing costs in the superannuation sector is for members to hold fewer accounts.
“I think there is a much quicker way to save money in the system and that is to reduce the number of multiple accounts,” Mr Schroder said.
“The idea of a much smaller number of accounts per person would be a really positive thing,” he said. “It’s already happening, but not at the speed which it should happen at.”
