The NZ managed funds sector continued to recover in the March quarter, falling just shy of the historical peak set at the end of 2021, according to new Reserve Bank of NZ (RBNZ) figures.
“Total funds under management increased 5.1% to $262.9b for the quarter ending 31st March ’23, but still remains below the record high of $264.3b in Dec ’21,” the RBNZ report says.
“Annually, total funds under management went up by 2.1%, after recording 3 consecutive annual decreases [on a quarter-by-quarter basis].”
However, after stripping-out “cross-invested assets” the RBNZ counts total NZ funds under management as of March 31 at $197.2 billion.
As usual, the quasi-compulsory KiwiSaver market booked the most robust growth statistics for both the quarterly and 12-month periods, adding some $5.5 billion (or almost 6 per cent) over the three months to the end of March.
Year-on-year KiwiSaver assets under management rose about $4.8 billion, equating to a 5.1 per cent rise after a tough 2022 that saw the market slump to a low of $87.3 billion at June 30 last year.
But non-KiwiSaver superannuation funds went backwards by almost $1.5 billion during the first three months of this year after holding steady just above $32 billion for the previous three quarters.
Super funds reported roughly $30.5 billion under management as at March 31 compared to $35.2 billion at the same date in 2022.
Meanwhile, other non-super retail funds rose almost 4 per cent in the March quarter to reach $56.1 billion, beating the record high of more than $55.8 billion set 12 months previously and representing a big jump from the recent low of $51.8 billion recorded last June.
The RBNZ statistics also show the individually managed portfolio sector – a proxy for discretionary investment management services – slipped in the March quarter to about $46.4 billion compared to almost $49 billion three months prior.
Asset exposures swung around in the first quarter of 2023, too, for fixed income investments in particular, the central bank data shows.
“Long term debt securities increased 16.2% this quarter, from $60.3b to $70.1b. That is an annual increase of 10.9%,” the RBNZ report says. “Short term debt securities recorded a quarterly decrease of 16.5%, down to $16.4b, and recorded an annual increase of 3.6%.”
Cash is also kingish with holding in the the most-liquid asset class up by more than 4 per cent in the March quarter and over 10 per cent for the 12-month period to $38.4 billion.
The RBNZ quarterly statistics cover 37 firms (all with more than $1 billion under management), representing about 97 per cent of the local market – excluding the NZ Superannuation and ACC funds.