ANZ has emerged as the most successful bank player in the KiwiSaver market as measured across several variables in a new study published by actuarial and consulting firm, Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW).
The MJW analysis, based on Financial Markets Authority (FMA) KiwiSaver quarterly disclosure data over September 2013 to December this year, measured bank schemes across funds under management (FUM), fees and performance.
ANZ ranked first by FUM and fees and second in performance but the MJW finding comes with the caveats: “… that as we have looked at the results from the perspective of a bank we have given a top rating where the bank’s fees are highest!
“We have just looked at the performance over the period since the BNZ scheme was launched which has been beneficial to Kiwi Wealth and soft for BNZ.”
The study also found ANZ (excluding the OneAnswer scheme) is growing its FUM at a faster rate than its bank rivals, with the gap between it and second-placed ASB steadily widening.
ANZ grew its KiwiSaver FUM by 53 per cent over the period covered by the report, compared to about 42 per cent for Westpac and over 44 per cent for ASB.
“The relatively higher growth in the ANZ FUM perhaps reflects that it is now more focused on achieving a market share which reflects the size of the bank itself,” the MJW study says. “Based on the relative size of its mortgage books one might expect ANZ to have FUM approaching $6 billion.”
While BNZ recorded the highest FUM growth rate (304 per cent) over the period, this was from a low base. KiwiBank also grew FUM 76 per cent, aided by the recent transfer of members from the bank’s now-closed legacy scheme.
The Kiwibank Kiwi Wealth scheme was also the odd-one-out as measured by average balance per member, with this metric actually declining by 6.8 per cent. Most other bank schemes grew average balance per member by between 25-30 per cent over the period with the more youthful BNZ scheme reporting an almost 80 per cent increase in this measure.
“Interestingly, for the combined [Kiwi Wealth and old Kiwibank] schemes the growth fund has the highest average balance,” the report says. “This suggests that the profile for the average Gareth Morgan [renamed Kiwi Wealth] scheme investor was very different to an average bank member.”