Australia
Latest news and analysis of pensions, asset management, regulation and trends in Australia from IPE’s award-winning journalists.
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Opinion Pieces
The 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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News
UK 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 Pieces
Australian 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 Pieces
Australia'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 Pieces
Australia'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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Interviews
Australia’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 Pieces
Australian 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 Pieces
Australia 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.
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Opinion Pieces
Australia connects retirement income sources
Australia, a country with the world’s fourth-largest pool of retirement savings, is caught in a curious bind. At issue is how to transition Australians from saving to spending.
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Opinion Pieces
Australian funds jostle for slice of energy transition market
Australia’s largest integrated power generator and energy retailer, Origin, lost out on becoming a cornerstone investment in the US$15bn (€13.7bn) Brookfield Global Transition Fund after a failed A$20bn (€12.2bn) attempt by a Brookfield-led consortium to take over Origin last year.
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Opinion Pieces
Australia's super funds strengthen their voice
A new superannuation advocacy body has been established in Australia. Known as the Super Members Council of Australia (SMC), it will become the voice of Australia’s rapidly-growing profit-to-members super funds.
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Opinion Pieces
Super funds voice corporate governance concerns with Australian business
At its recent annual general meeting in Melbourne, Qantas, Australia’s national carrier, was lambasted by irate shareholders over a litany of grievances, not least the role of chairman Richard Goyder and the board over what shareholders saw as the mismanagement of the airline.
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Asset Class Reports
Australia’s QIC makes inroads in Europe and US for mid-market market private equity
The Australian private equity manager has drawn on the knowledge of its Danish head of Europe to gain global assets
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Opinion Pieces
Pensions a bright spot for Australia
By 2063, Australia’s relatively youthful treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will be 85 years old and likely well into retirement.
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Opinion Pieces
Australian super funds expand their global footprint
With billions of dollars flowing into its treasury each year, Australia’s largest industry super fund, AustralianSuper, is finding that it is rapidly outgrowing its own backyard.
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Opinion Pieces
Letter from Australia: Retail funds lured by private markets
Australia’s retail funds are trying to navigate the unfamiliar terrain of private markets as they seek to lift their performance.
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Opinion Pieces
Australia: Caps, concessions and class war
The Australian Federal government recently moved to make a “modest” change to the nation’s superannuation system which, it says, will save A$2bn (€1.2bn) a year for its over-stretched budget.
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Opinion Pieces
Australia: Super funds face the future of fossil fuels
After a year when fossil fuel stocks outperformed all other shares, Australian super funds face a conundrum – to buy, hold or sell?
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Opinion Pieces
Australia: Downturn casts a shadow over super anniversary
Australia’s superannuation industry enters its fourth decade under the darkening clouds of a global economic slowdown that is already having a dramatic impact on returns.
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News
Super industry sees liquidity challenge as members switch to cash
COVID-19 has put a spotlight on liquidity