Industry superannuation fund Vision Super expects its merger with Equipsuper, scheduled for February 2012, will not be its last one.
"We are going to see a reduction in the number of funds," Vision Super chief operating officer Peter Rowe said yesterday.
"When licensing was introduced we saw a reduction in the number of funds and that activity has been continuing, and most funds are engaged with other funds or talking to other funds as we speak.
"We are in the middle of a merger and I suspect it won't be the only merger we will do.
"I suspect we will be moving onto a second merger."
Rowe was speaking at the FST Media Future of Superannuation Conference in Sydney, where the consolidation of the industry was a dominant topic of discussion.
Many presenters agreed more mergers would follow, but AustralianSuper product general manager Noel Lacey tempered the expectations, saying there were practical obstacles that would limit the number of mergers taking place.
"In terms of consolidated funds and how few funds there might be in 10 years, the database merger and integration of records is going to be a fairly key determinant in that," Lacey said.
"I think people are perhaps over-predicting how many funds will rationalise. There is only a certain number of opportunities that are able to fit into the administration pipeline, which will be a limiting factor in some ways.
"Then there is the financial story; the valuation of assets and that tends to flow through financial accounting, tax assessment and investment management.
"Those are key integration issues. There is a lot of focus on the records, a lot of focus on communication of member benefits, all of that is really important."
