Australia
Latest news and analysis of pensions, asset management, regulation and trends in Australia from IPE’s award-winning journalists.
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Special ReportREST Super: a pension fund in the dock
Pension funds are not just involved in class actions as plaintiffs or claimants. Sometimes they are on the other side of the courtroom as defendants.
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Asset Class ReportsCase study: How Australia’s largest super fund diversifies through concentrated portfolios
Mark Hargraves, head of international equities and private equity at AustralianSuper, compares managing concentrated equity portfolios to piloting speed boats
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NewsViewpoint: Australia’s retirement savings model is shaping the UK’s investment future
Deeper pensions and investment ties between Australia and the UK make sense, says Gregg McClymont, IFM Investors’ executive director of public affairs, EMEA
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AnalysisInternational firms eye Australia’s superannuation market
Foreign ownership is set to play an even bigger role in the country’s expanding retirement savings sector
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Opinion PiecesUS budget bill battle fazes Australian super funds
With around A$750bn (€420bn) allocated to the US, Australian super funds are bracing themselves for the impact from a raft of policies being rolled out by the Trump administration.
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Opinion PiecesProposed tax on retirement savings threatens Australian Super system
Australia’s new government wants to tax unrealised gains on superannuation savings
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Opinion PiecesDomestic investment bias is back: sow’s ear or silk purse?
Pension funds now have a very large dollop of geopolitical risk to contend with at a time when many are under some degree of pressure, overt or otherwise, to invest more domestically.
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Opinion PiecesAustralian super funds split on US exposure post Trump tariffs
Just weeks after Australian super funds visited the United States to pitch investments worth hundreds of billions of dollars, US president Donald Trump delivered a body blow with his ‘Liberation Day’ tariff plan.
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Opinion PiecesLetter from Australia: super funds sanguine on US-led ESG pullback
Despite US backpedalling on climate change initiatives, Australia’s superannuation funds are taking a long-term approach to ‘green’ opportunities
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Opinion PiecesRetail superannuation funds gain favour
A three-way battle is raging for control of Insignia Financial, the third-largest retail super fund in Australia’s A$4.1trn (€2.5trn) superannuation sector.
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InterviewsECP Asset Management: An Australian approach to concentrated equity portfolios
The 2020s will likely be remembered as a period of high stock market concentration, similar to the decade of ‘nifty fifty’ stocks, which propelled the US market in the years before the 1973 crash.
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Opinion PiecesAustralians seek €3.1bn in lost superannuation contributions
In 2021-22, one in four Australian workers missed out on their superannuation contributions. The total lost was A$5.1bn (€3.1bn), despite the country having a compulsory superannuation system.
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Opinion PiecesThe size of Australia’s super funds could threaten the financial system
Australia’s central bank has warned that rapid growth of the nation’s superannuation system could “amplify” shocks to the country’s financial stability.
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NewsUK should not try to replicate Australian pensions model but learn from it
Australian pensions industry can help UK navigate through challenges
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Opinion PiecesAustralian regulators take a deep dive into growing private markets sector
The recent brisk battle to buy an Australian data centre platform, AirTrunk, pushed the price to more than A$24bn (€14.5bn) – double what was anticipated just a few months ago.
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Opinion PiecesAustralia's super funds emerge from regulatory shadows
Australia’s A$700bn-plus (€424bn) retail superannuation sector is starting to emerge from the shadow of its profit-to-member peers. It has been only five years since a royal commission published damning evidence of misconduct within the sector.
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Opinion PiecesAustralia's regulator cracks down on greenwashing
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has won its first greenwashing case in a civil action against Vanguard Investments.
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InterviewsAustralia’s Challenger takes credit and affiliates global
Some 2.5 million Australians are set to retire over the next decade, according to the country’s Treasury. This ageing population has challenged Australia’s A$3.6trn (€2.3trn) superannuation fund sector, and the industry as a whole is pivoting more heavily towards the decumulation phase.
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Opinion PiecesAustralian super funds push back on lacklustre energy transition proposals by corporates
Australian and global pension funds orchestrated an unusually vocal tactical campaign against the climate-transition action plan of Woodside Energy, a global oil and gas producer, in the lead-up to its 70th annual general meeting in late April.
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Opinion PiecesAustralia faces up to the cost of pandemic pension early release
Four years after Australians were allowed to withdraw superannuation savings to deal with the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, they now know emergency measures will cost the nation A$85bn (€51bn) in future pension payments.
