The National Australia Bank-owned BNZ has clambered above Mercer to assume the spot as the seventh-largest KiwiSaver provider in the latest Strategic Insight (SI) survey.
KiwiSaver latecomer BNZ jumped ahead in the SI rankings during the September quarter after seeing funds under management grow by almost 10 per cent to more than $1.95 billion – just $14 million above Mercer. The BNZ scheme launched in 2013, well after the 2007 KiwiSaver inception date.
During the three months to September 30 a trio of schemes – Kiwi Wealth, BT/Westpac and ASB – also clicked over new milestones, rising above $4 billion, $6 billion and $9 billion, respectively.
ANZ, the country’s largest KiwiSaver provider, grew 5.3 per cent over the quarter to slightly under $13 billion. However, the five largest providers all lagged the average sector growth rate during the three-month period of 6.1 per cent, ranging from 4.1 per cent for AMP to 5.8 per cent at the ASB scheme.
Aside from BNZ, the fastest-growing providers over the quarter were all NZ-owned entities led by Auckland boutique firm, Generate, which was up 18.6 per cent to finish with almost $1 billion under management.
Milford Asset Management (13 per cent) was the best of the rest followed by Booster (7.7 per cent) as well as Kiwi Wealth and Smartshares – the latter two both grew around 7 per cent. Overall, the 15 or so KiwiSaver providers lumped as ‘others’ also experienced an above-average quarter, growing 6.7 per cent to reach some $2.1 billion.
However, the fast-growing passive fund scheme, Simplicity, accounts for about a quarter of the ‘others’ with funds under management (FUM) above $450 million at the end of September.
The SI data shows total KiwiSaver FUM stood at almost $53.9 billion by September 30 as investment returns of $1.4 billion and net flows of $1.7 billion added 6.1 per cent to the pool of NZ retirement savings assets.
As at the end of October this year, KiwiSaver member numbers were up almost 7,000 to hit 2.9 million, according to Inland Revenue Department (IRD) figures. Almost $80 million exited KiwiSaver during October to help fund first home purchases, the IRD statistics show – about on trend for the year. More than 11,460 KiwiSaver members waka-jumped over October, which, again, was consistent with 2018 monthly scheme transfer figures.